Brussels, 22/10/2008 (Agence Europe) - As announced last weekend (see EUROPE 9765), a first international summit to assess progress made in managing the financial crisis and setting out the principles for reforming the global financial system will be held in Washington on 15 November. It will bring together heads of state and government of the G20 group of countries (the G7, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey and also the European Union). The other summits planned later are likely to be devoted to measures to be taken to implement such a reform. French President Nicolas Sarkozy has already indicated his intention to bring together European leaders to prepare for this summit. This meeting will probably take place sometime after 4 November (the date of the Ecofin Council), perhaps over the weekend of 8 November.
Further, if the emergence of a euro area economic government, which Sarkozy is trumpeting (see EUROPE 9766), presupposes, according to the French president, increasing coordination of economic policies (see EUROEP 9763), it would also perhaps mean the creation of a parallel Presidency at the level of heads of state and government of the 15 euro area member states. This idea, which French daily Le Monde says is how Sarkozy is thinking, would try to maintain the impetus for cooperation and coordination apparent in the euro area as a result of the financial crisis and to replace the next EU Council Presidencies, since neither the Czech Republic nor Sweden has adopted the euro. From the strong position of his current role at the head of the European Council, the French president would be happy to continue in the “informal” role which he adopted recently at the first Eurogroup heads of state and government summit on 12 October. (A.B./transl.rt)