Carthy announces campaign against EU Directive promoting debt vultures

Sinn Féin MEP Matt Carthy has called for a European-wide campaign to block the Commission’s proposal for a Directive on developing a secondary market for non-performing loans.

Addressing MEPs and ECB President Mario Draghi in the plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, Carthy said: “The ECB has never protected borrowers in distress. It says that is the job of Member States.

“But the Central Banks in many states, including Ireland, have utterly failed to protect borrowers from repossessions and violent evictions. Our Central Bank warns that a new wave of mass repossessions is coming.

“The fact that the EU institutions are now legislating on how to deal with non-performing loans could be an opportunity to put in place strong protection for borrowers. But we can already see from the Commission and Council’s approach that their only interest is to restore the massive profits of Europe’s banks. The Commission proposal on a secondary market for NPLs will have extreme and appalling consequences on mortgage-holders.

“If the ECB won’t protect ordinary people from the debt vultures; if the national Central Banks won’t; if the Commission and Council won’t, who will?

“This Directive should be scrapped, and it is us in the European Parliament and civil society that must block its progress.”

Further details of the EU-wide campaign fr the withdrawal of this Directive will be announced in the coming week.