During the 11th G20 summit in the Chinese city of Hangzhou on Sunday 4 and Monday 5 September, the respective Presidents of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker and the European Council, Donald Tusk, will highlight the need to respect the commitments already made to stimulate economic growth, fight against tax evasion and fraud and maintain the momentum in climate protection.
On Tuesday 30 August, a senior European official stated that the "top priority is implementing the commitments made" at the 2014 Brisbane Summit. In November 2014, the G20 summit in Brisbane adopted an action plan to stimulate global growth by 2% by 2018 compared to end-2014 growth rates (EUROPE 11198). G20 countries have also all drawn inspiration from this action plan to build their respective national growth strategies, which have been subject to mid-term reviews from their finance ministers. A revised action plan setting out concrete commitments will be adopted at Hangzhou.
In a letter addressed to European leaders about the G20 summit, Juncker and Tusk indicated "We will underline the importance of a credible language in favour of sustainable and inclusive growth that mobilises all available instruments in the monetary, budgetary and structural domains". With regard to the European economy, the Europeans have provided assurances to their interlocutors that the Union's economic fundamentals are strong, despite this prospect of the United Kingdom leaving the EU in the medium term. They also argue that the European economic strategy that prioritises most investment through the "Juncker” investment plan, is appropriate.
In the financial field, the European delegation will emphasise that the ongoing review of the "Basle III" framework to be finalised by the end of the year, should be subject to a detailed impact assessment and that it avoids any significant increase in banking capital requirements. In the fiscal domain, it is calling for automatic information exchanges between G20 countries from the beginning of 2018. The two European leaders quoted above also stressed "We need international criteria to identify un-cooperative jurisdictions and serve as a solid basis to the common European list to be adopted in 2017" (EUROPE 11534).
It should be pointed out that during the summit a working dinner will take place between Finance Ministers. The Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Pierre Moscovici will be participating at this event.
Migration. Although G20 leaders described the Syrian refugee crisis in November 2015 as a subject of global concern (EUROPE 11431), they will also be raising the issue of the migration phenomenon again. Juncker and Tusk will call for a "global response to manage the unprecedented refugee crisis and tackle its root causes". No specific summit will take place in the backdrop to the UN General Assembly, however. They will also point out that the EU is seeking to introduce an external investment plan based on the "Juncker” plan as a means to help the countries of origin leverage funding and take action in response the respective populations (EUROPE 11567).
In a backdrop to the summit, G20 Foreign Ministers will be meeting with the EU High Representative, Federica Mogherini, who will be participating at the informal European Ministers for Foreign Affairs' meeting in Bratislava. At this stage, Juncker and Tusk have not planned any meetings at Hangzhou with either the Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan or his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. The latter will be holding discussions about Ukraine with German Chancellor, Angela Merkel and the French President, François Hollande (EUROPE 11607). (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)