Brussels, 30/03/2010 (Agence Europe) - The president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, subscribes to the main messages contained in a letter drafted by the leaders of five G20 countries addressed to their counterparts of the main industrialised countries. Addressing the press through a spokesperson on Tuesday 30 March, the Commission welcomed the approach taken by the G20 steering group composed of past or future G20 host countries, supporting their call for the G20 to implement the initiatives to which it had committed. In their letter, US President Barack Obama, Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown above all press for the G20 to implement commitments to ensure strong macro economic policy cooperation and to continue regulatory reform to strengthen the international financial system.
After the European Council on 25 and 26 March, during which preparation of the next G20 summit was discussed (26-27 June in Toronto), the president of the Commission had underlined the need to show proof of unity in international meetings. “The EU should use its more coherent presence in G20 to feed new ideas and momentum to carry through its objective to support global recovery and indeed put the financial markets on the strong footing that they need”, the spokesperson repeated. In her view, “our message will be stronger if we can say the EU has done its homework, that is why before Toronto we should aim to reach an agreement on some of the key financial services files”. She went on to cite the question of hedge funds and that of banks' own funds.
Last week, President Barroso had also “called for a clear message from G20 on an exit strategy to support recovery”, she pointed out, expressing the hope that, in Toronto, leaders of the 20 most industrialised countries will seek “agreement on guiding principles for the fiscal exit including the condition for implementing exit when the recovery becomes self-sufficient”. When all is said and done, success of the Toronto summit depends on the “capacity of the G20 leaders to commit to meaningful actions”, she said. (A.B./transl.jl)