EU, French top officials applaud G20 financial summit results

Source: Xinhua | 11-16-2008 09:45

WASHINGTON, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- EU and French top officials applauded the G20 financial summit concluded on Saturday for four principles that were reached at the meeting.

"I was very happy with the results of summit," said European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso at a post-summit joint press conference with French President Nicolas Sarkozy. "It has laid the foundation for the future."

He noted that the best summary on results of the two-day Summit on Financial Market and World Economy was the four principles, including a coordinated and concerted stimulus through the use of budgetary measures to support demand and the increase of financial assistance to emerging and developing countries and a new regulation for financial markets to prevent a similar crisis from happening again.

The other two principles he mentioned are a global economic governance more open to emerging and developing countries for more justice and efficiency and a rejection of protectionism and more openness towards exchanges.

Barroso acknowledged that there is "no miracle solution" to the ongoing global financial crisis, but with these principles, countries can wish for avoiding deeper crisis.

He also called for real commitment to the action plan yielded from the summit with a hope to bring concrete results to the world economy.

EU, as the only inter-governmental organization of G20 members, has been blaming the current financial crisis for the lax financial regulation, the weak international crisis management capacities and the global current account imbalances.

It has been urging for real change in the global financial system at the G20 summit as a global response to the current financial crisis.

In preparation for the summit, EU leaders agreed last Friday on a set of common lines to take to Washington, including a commitment to new, common standards of oversight, transparency and risk assessment and proposals to strengthen international crisis management.

Moreover, they also proposed a period of 100 days following the summit to draw up and begin implementing new measures.

During his briefing to reporters at the press conference, Sarkozy, whose country currently has the rotating chairmanship in EU, gave credit to the "fairly historical" summit since it was the first time for diverse countries to get together in Washington D.C. and agree on principles and action plans on how to solve the world economic crisis.

He said that the summit agreed on the need for stimulus, and called for coordination in fiscal policies and monitoring method for economic stimulus, to make sure "the crisis is never going to happen again."

He also urged for a more fair and new economic governance, strengthened financial regulation, and more open commercial and trade relations.

Hours after the end of the first G20 summit, the French president outlined a blueprint for the next gathering of its kind, by proposing that the next summit should be held in London, Britain, which will chair the G20 in 2009.

On the relation with the outgoing U.S. President George W. Bush, Sarkozy said his American counterpart "has been a loyal partner, not always easy, but loyal."

The two EU officials appeared before media reporters after the formal talks in the summit concluded on Saturday, followed by a series of bilateral talks.

The G20, founded on Sept. 25, 1999 in Washington, serves as an international forum of finance ministers and central bank governors from 19 countries -- Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey and the United States -- the European Union and the Bretton Woods Institutions, namely the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.

It is the first time for the body, which usually brought together finance ministers and central bank chiefs at annual meetings, to hold a head-of-state meeting in view of the worst economic crisis since 1930s.

The United States has indicated that it expects the meeting as the first step in a process that can lay the ground for future actions, while the European countries, led by France, deem the summit should take quick and necessary actions to produce real results.

Editor:Xiong