At the Finance G20 to be held in Washington on Thursday 20 and Friday 21 April, on the sidelines of the spring meetings of the IMF and the World Bank, the finance ministers of the European countries that are members of the G20 will reiterate the importance of multilateralism in dealing with global matters.
“We support a rules- and market-based international economic order with sound multilateral institutions. Moreover, we all agree that we should avoid all forms of protectionism, support the Paris agreement on climate change, the work on green finance, and the multilateral approach to taxation and to financial regulation”, stresses a document outlining the position to be defended by the Europeans at the Finance G20 and approved at the informal meeting of European finance ministers in Valletta on Friday 7 April.
At the end of March, at the previous meeting of the world's biggest financial decision-makers in Baden-Baden, the United States blocked any reference in the final press release of the meeting to the fight against protectionism (see EUROPE 11749).
The Europeans will reiterate the fundamental importance of international cooperation in financial regulation matters. “Avoiding rollback in the financial regulation agenda is necessary”, the document stipulates.
In Washington, the Europeans will reiterate their calls for the finalisation of the Basel III banking prudential rules not to lead to a significant increase in capital requirements or to significant differences for specific regions of the world. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)