The Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament are calling on other political groups to reject a technical proposal from the Commission for failing to impose sufficient restrictions on commodities trading on the financial markets.

The S&D Group has tabled a resolution to object to the rules stemming from the second Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II) that will be put to a vote during the plenary session mid-February in Strasbourg.

S&D Group negotiator Anneliese Dodds MEP said:

"When MiFID II was approved, MEPs from all parties agreed that one of the law's major successes was a tough new regime to stop speculation in commodities markets from driving up food prices for people across Europe.  Financial speculation on commodity exchanges is widely seen as one of the main causes of food price peaks in 2007-08 and 2010-11. 

"For the last two years, I have been warning against the risks of this new regime being watered down when it comes to implementation.  In the end, the Commission has only listened to some of our concerns. We want position limits on the commodities markets that are able to curb speculation. We believe that the methodology proposed by the European Commission is too permissive.

"The Parliament should send these regulations back to the Commission to be redrafted.

"There is time for the European Commission to make these important changes without causing delay to the overall legislation. MiFID II does not enter into force until next January.

"The main purpose of the MiFID II commodity derivatives regime has always been to prevent damaging speculation on food markets which have the biggest impact on consumers and producers.

"We are calling on MEPs from across the political spectrum to support our call.  We want to make sure that we keep the promises we made to citizens back in 2014."