Brussels, 27/08/2013 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission is of the opinion that the events in Syria should not derail the holding of the G20 summit (in St Petersburg on 5-6 September).
“Urgent current affairs feature on the sidelines of such summits. But we expect the G20 summit to take place as planned”, said the Commission's spokesperson, on Tuesday 27 August, in response to a question about the possible repercussions of an escalation of violence in Syria (our translation). Russia, which is hosting the annual summit of the world's 20 biggest economic powers, is clearly hostile to the possibility of military air strikes from Western countries in response to the alleged use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime against its own people (see other article).
In a joint letter to the European leaders at the end of July, President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso and President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy outline the EU's priorities: - the timely and effective implementation of the reform of the global financial architecture (including banking supervisory rules, supervision of too-big-to-fail banks, management of derivatives); - the widespread introduction of the automatic exchange of taxation information (see EUROPE 10894 and 10893).
Also due to be discussed on the sidelines of the summit are the recent agitation on the markets of the emerging countries. These countries are facing the end of cheap money and the flight of investors particularly after the US Fed announced the normalisation of its monetary policy. The central banks of Brazil, India and Turkey have intervened to fight against the sudden fall in value of their currencies - a favourable situation for exports but one which weighs heavily on the energy bill. (MB/transl.fl)