Brussels, 06/04/2009 (Agence Europe) - A few days after the London summit, on Monday 6 April, Joaquin Almunia appealed for a stronger EU foreign policy for the economic arena. The EU's share of the global economic, its role in global trade and finance, the strength of its economy and its political and technical expertise place a lot of economic responsibility on it as well as give it a lot of influence. The Commissioner for economic and monetary affairs regretted that this situation is not translated into a clear external economic policy. He also said that Europe's fragmented representation complicates and even sometimes underlines the EU's capacity to assume the role it could claim for itself. If the EU is to become more influential in the current context it is “crucial to consolidate its voice” in the international institutions. During a conference organised by DG Ecfin, the Commissioner repeated that this is the case at the International Monetary Fund (before a solution is imposed on us for obtaining better representation for emerging economies) (G7, G8, G20 and now at the Financial Stability Council). A.B./trans/rh