Brussels, 04/11/2015 (Agence Europe) - The European Union needs a coordinated and innovative response from the G20 to a migration challenge which is hitting it hard.
“Meeting in the midst of a refugee crisis due to conflicts in Syria and elsewhere, the G20 must rise to the challenge and lead a coordinated and innovative response to the crisis that recognises its global nature and economic consequences and promotes greater international solidarity in protecting refugees”, said the Presidents of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, and of the European Council, Donald Tusk, in a letter to the European leaders dated Tuesday 3 October, ahead of the G20 summit to be held in Antalya (Turkey) on Sunday 15 and Monday 16 November. They argue that the G20 has a specific responsibility for making sure that international organisations providing support to the refugees have the financial resources they need.
In late September, the EU decided to make at least an extra billion euros available to humanitarian organisations and agencies, including €200 million in 2015 for the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and the World Food Programme (WFP), which are short of financial resources as a result of insufficient contributions (see EUROPE 11395).
On the purely economic questions, the two leaders call for an agreement for new measures to tackle cross-border tax avoidance and tax evasion, including the finalisation and application of the 'BEPS' plan of the OECD, which was the subject of an agreement at the Lima 'G20 Finance' in October (see EUROPE 11407). The G20 needs to show leadership on the question of harmful tax competition and the exchange of information on cross-border tax rulings. Reiterating the unanimous agreement of the Ecofin Council on the transparency of tax rulings (see EUROPE 11404), Juncker and Tusk stressed the EU's intention of setting the example and acting quickly at international level.
At the Antalya summit, the G20 will be called upon to approve the safety buffer (TLAC, or 'total loss-absorbing capacity') of the major banks of systemic importance. This buffer will correspond to between 16% and 20% of a bank's assets being placed into reserve, weighted by risks from 2019 onwards. “It will be important to ensure that this new global standard gives the necessary recognition to the EU resolution framework (…) that will be fully implemented in 2016”, the two leaders stated.
With the global economic situation continuing to be “vulnerable”, the EU will stress the importance of private and public investments, particularly by means of the implementation of the Juncker plan, which is designed to draw down 315 billion euros' worth of new investments between now and 2017. In Antalya, the participating countries will present revised growth strategies designed to reach the target laid down in November 2014 at the Brisbane summit, of increasing the GDP of the G20 by an additional 2% up to 2018. Progress is also anticipated to ensure that multilateral development banks can be pressed into service to shore up economic growth. The EU also intends to keep up the pressure to have obstacles to free trade lifted, as the countries of the G20 have maintained more than 75% of the trade restrictions they have adopted since 2008 (see EUROPE 11423).
In the run-up to the UN COP 21 conference on the climate, Juncker and Tusk argue that the G20 needs to show “particular determination” in order to conclude a “robust, ambitious and inclusive” agreement to fight global warming post-2020, to include a “phase-out of fossil fuel subsidies”. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)