Brussels, 09/02/2009 (Agence Europe) - Meetings at the highest level are increasing in number ahead of the forthcoming European Council (19-20 March) to precede the G20 of 2 April in London. On the evening of Monday 9 February, President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, attended the meeting of the Eurogroup and on Wednesday 11 February, he will meet the Czech Prime Minister, Mirek Topolánek, in Brussels. After this meeting, the two men will confirm that an informal summit of heads of state and government will be held at the end of February. The subject of each of these meetings will be the current economic situation and responses to the financial crisis.
The spokesperson to the Commission said on Monday that the idea had been raised that same morning in a telephone conversation between Mr Barroso and Mr Topolánek. The idea is to hold an "exchange of views and to increase information on subjects such as: how the relaunch efforts are going in the member states, what are the initial experiences reported in this field", he told the press. On the part of the Czech Presidency, it has been stated that a decision of this kind is not related to any particular requests, but that the current exceptional situation justifies holding this event, probably in Prague, to accelerate the debate during the European Spring Council. Last week, the French President Nicolas Sarkozy spoke of holding a Eurogroup summit, but this came up against a flat refusal from Germany and others. On Monday, both countries were expected to send a joint letter to the Presidency of the Council, the Commission and to the other member states containing, amongst other things, proposals in the economic and financial field. As well as this preparatory action, which is intended to respond to the scale of the crisis, come the traditional contributions to the work of the heads of state and government from the various configurations of the Council of the EU European Commission. As announced (EUROPE 9835), the College of Commissioners will this Wednesday debate the document to be adopted on 4 March and which will be based on, amongst other things, the report of the Larosière group on financial supervision (which was submitted to the Commission on 25 February). (A.B./transl.fl)