Markets for raw materials – oil, agricultural products, metals, CO ₂ quotas, etc – are increasingly subject to financial speculation and European regulation in this respect is “insufficient”. On 31 August, three French ministers wrote to three EU commissioners calling for either specific legislation or a Commission communication on the regulation of commodities and similar derivatives markets. Such rules or principles should then be specifically adapted to each market, say Jean-Louis Borloo (ecology and energy), Christine Lagarde (economy) and Bruno Le Maire (agriculture).

France, which will preside the G20 from November, will give priority to financial regulation. The ministers argue that “mere regulation of financial instruments markets would be unsuited to the specific features of derivatives markets” and that special measures, such as caps on positions, are “indispensable”. They also recommend closer cooperation between sectoral regulators and better knowledge of the “interactions between agricultural markets and their derivatives,” taking account of the existing instruments of the Common Agricultural Policy.

The letters to Commissioners Ciolos (agriculture), Barnier (financial services) and Oettinger (energy) are available at www.europolitics.info > Search = 277723