David Cameron, U.K. Prime Minister.
British Prime Minister David Cameron wrote in his nomination letter that Hill, 54, has the “skills and experience to be a strong addition to the European Commission.” Now the former lobbyist faces an interrogation from skeptical lawmakers in Brussels. The hearings for commission nominees will take place from Sept. 29 to Oct. 7.
“The European Parliament has pushed for stricter regulation of the financial markets in the last few years,” said Sven Giegold, a German member of the assembly’s Economic and Monetary Policy Committee. “Putting a fox in charge of the hen house is in this area particularly unacceptable. A very difficult hearing awaits Mr. Hill.”
The British government has clashed repeatedly with
the EU in recent years over issues from a cap on bankers’ bonuses to the location of clearinghouses -- all part of an overhaul of the bloc’s financial rules undertaken by the Frenchman Michel Barnier, who holds the commissioner’s post for which Hill has been nominated until the end of October.
Barnier said that, if appointed, Hill should continue the EU’s financial reforms focusing on the “solidity of clearinghouses, shadow banking, the regulation of benchmarks and structural reform of banks.”
Conservative Rebels
Hill should be assessed on his achievements, not his nationality, Barnier said in a Sept. 12 interview. “I suffered a lot from this prejudging because I was French, I was Gaullist. I asked to be judged on my acts and on my attitude.”After graduating with a degree in history from Cambridge University in 1982, Hill worked as a behind-the-scenes adviser in the British government before going into public relations and lobbying. He also served as a political secretary to then-Prime Minister John Major in the early 1990s, around the time that Major was fighting rebels in the Conservative party who wanted the U.K. to have a looser relationship with the EU.
In the European Parliament, Hill will face questions on his role in founding lobbying company Quiller Consultants, which includes financial institutions among its clients. He left Quiller in 2010 and entered government, serving most recently as leader of the House of Lords.
If the parliament approves the full commission in a vote on Oct. 22, Hill and his colleagues could begin work as scheduled on Nov. 1.
Juncker Letter
As the next EU commissioner for financial stability, financial services and the capital markets union, Hill would take over responsibility for proposing banking and markets rules across the EU, building on the work of Barnier, who oversaw a regulatory overhaul in response to the 2008 financial crisis.In a Sept. 10 mission letter to Hill, Jean-Claude Juncker, the next president of the European Commission, set out priorities for the job including reviving “sustainable and high-quality securitization markets,” reducing the cost for businesses of raising capital and developing alternatives to bank lending. He was also charged with the “timely and effective implementation” of Barnier’s reforms.
Hill put an emphasis on “creating the right conditions for jobs and growth,” according to a statement published by the U.K. Treasury.
“This is good news for the City and ultimately a sensible decision given the U.K.’s key role in global financial markets,” Tony Anderson, a partner in the banking team at law firm Pinsent Masons LLP, said in a statement. “He will certainly have his hands full.”
Not everyone in Britain agrees. Nigel Farage, leader of the U.K. Independence Party and a member of the European Parliament, described the nomination as a “coup for Juncker,” whom Cameron opposed as head of the commission.
Juncker “has got an Englishman to be hangman for the British financial industry, a huge contributor to our national tax revenue,” Farage said.
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