Britannia Radio

The Berlin summit yesterday got an ecstatic review from the BBC and 
in the news columns of the Telegraph the unity of the meeting was 
stressed although it notes that the attack on Hedge Funds by Merkel 
flies in the face of British views.  The Times website has perhaps  
hidden it out of sight somewhere!  The FT's 'take' is below but it is 
the EU Observer that tells it as it was, without the spin, thanks to 
the Czech prime minister who unlike the others present was honest in 
his report.

The Franco-German axis got an airing again as Merkel and Sarkozy led 
a concerted attack on London's European pre-eminence.

After the massive Irish demonstration which passed off peacefully at 
the weekend,  the authorities are clearly worried about public order 
at  the G20 summit.  Personally I'm not making any central London 
plans for April 2.

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FINANCIAL TIMES    23.2.09
EU leaders push sweeping regulations
By Chris Bryant in Berlin

European leaders on Sunday outlined sweeping proposals to regulate 
financial markets and hedge funds and clamp down on tax havens as 
they sought a common position to combat the global economic crisis.

At a meeting in Berlin ahead of the Group of 20 summit of advanced 
and emerging economies in London in April, the leaders called for new 
sanctions to punish "unco-operative" jurisdictions and tax havens, 
which member states plan to name in the coming weeks.

Angela Merkel, German chancellor, who hosted the meeting, said 
leaders had also agreed to support doubling the financial resources 
of the International Monetary Fund so it could act quickly to bail 
out nations in need in an "extraordinary international crisis".

The heads of government and finance ministers of Germany, France, the 
UK, the Netherlands, Czech Republic and Luxembourg, as well as the 
president of the European Commission and central bankers, met to 
thrash out a common European position ahead of April's G20 summit, 
which Barack Obama, US president, is due to attend.

In a joint statement, they endorsed a plan to create a comprehensive 
regulatory framework that covers "all financial markets, products and 
participants - including hedge funds and other private pools of 
capital which may pose a systemic risk".  [Note the lack of detail 
here -cs]

Although the details need to be worked out, this consensus is a 
victory for France and Germany, which have championed the need for a 
seamless regulatory architecture in the face of resistance from the 
UK, where many hedge funds are based. "We're not talking about 
superficial measures. We're not talking about transitional measures. 
We're talking about structural measures that need to be taken," said 
Nicolas Sarkozy, France's president.

In the meantime, the IMF and Financial Stability Forum should be 
given the task of monitoring and promoting the implementation of a 47-
point financial action plan adopted at the first G20 meeting in 
Washington in November, the leaders said.

Since that meeting, the global economic outlook has deteriorated 
sharply, forcing countries to pass measures to stimulate their 
economies and support industries, creating alarm over competition and 
protectionism. The leaders on Sunday rejected protectionism and 
pledged to keep the competitive distortions caused by national 
measures to an "absolute minimum".

Ms Merkel said EU leaders had gone further than they had in the past 
by calling for sanctions to crack down on unco-operative financial 
jurisdictions, including tax havens, a list of which would be drawn 
up by April 2.

The participants also agreed that banks should create additional 
buffers of capital in prosperous times s they are better prepared 
when the economic environment deteriorates.

Gordon Brown, UK prime minister, said that international action was 
required to help central and eastern European states that were 
suffering as a result of the withdrawal of western banks to their own 
territories.

Accordingly, leaders were proposing "a $500bn IMF fund that enables 
the IMF not only to deal with crises when they happen but to prevent 
crises," he said.
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EU OBSERVER    23.2.09
EU nations call for better financial regulation
ANDREW WILLIS

Leaders from the EU's largest economies have called for stricter 
regulation of the financial sector to prevent a repetition of the 
current crisis after meeting in Berlin on Sunday (22 February).

"All financial markets, products and participants - including hedge 
funds and other private pools of capital which may pose a systemic 
risk - must be subjected to appropriate oversight or regulation," a 
summit statement said.

Sunday's meeting was called by German chancellor Angela Merkel 
earlier this month to help the EU hammer out a unified position ahead 
of the G20 meeting on 2 April, which will be attended by Barak Obama 
on his first visit to Europe as president of the United States.

Leaders from France, Germany, the UK, Italy, the Netherlands and 
Spain all took part in the meeting, as well as Czech prime minister 
Mirek Topolanek, as Prague currently holds the EU presidency.

The conclusions from the meeting will feed into two EU summits of its 
27 leaders in March and the G20 gathering of developed and developing 
nations in London.

The leaders agreed on the need to improve market transparency, setup 
regulation on hedge funds, crack down on tax havens and to compel 
banks to save more capital.
"We can't afford failure in London," French President Nicholas 
Sarkozy told reporters in Berlin after the talks. "We have to succeed 
and we can't accept that anyone or anything will get in the way of 
this [G20] summit."

The leaders also called for the International Monetary Fund's 
resources to be doubled to $500 billion.
"We decided that the international institutions have got to play a 
bigger role in working with individual countries," UK prime minister 
Gordon Brown said.
"We decided that the international institutions should have at least 
$500bn, to enable them not just to deal with crises but to enable 
them to be able to prevent crises,"

The appearance of a unified position on greater regulation for 
financial institutions such as hedge funds can be seen as a victory 
for Berlin and Paris who were concerned that London was backing away 
from the idea.

"It's not a case of talking up the situation but we want to send the 
message that we have a real opportunity to come out strengthened from 
this crisis," Ms Merkel said regarding the need for a new financial 
framework.

But Mr Topolanek painted a different picture to that of the unified 
front displayed by the EU leaders at a press conference after the 
meeting.
"If I put it very tenderly, the divergence in opinions was rather 
big," Topolanek told AFP on a plane home.

"It was obvious that the four countries representing the EU in the 
G20 (France, Germany, Britain, Italy) do not have the same opinion on 
a number of issues," he added.
"Our responsibility [as holders of the presidency] is to look for 
some unity. This won't be easy at all."

Mr Topolanek will represent the European Union at the G20 on 2 April 
in London where preparations are already under way for the meeting.

Superintendent David Hartshorn, who heads the London Metropolitan 
police's public order branch, told the Guardian newspaper that he had 
major concerns over the upcoming meeting.
"We've got G20 coming and I think that is being advertised on some of 
the sites as the highlight of what they see as a 'summer of rage'," 
he said, referring to websites encouraging activists to come and 
demonstrate.
=- =- =- =- =- =- =- =-
From:ANANOVA
'Summer of rage' fear over downturn

Police are bracing themselves for a "summer of rage" against the 
economic crisis, a senior officer has warned.

Supt David Hartshorn, who heads the Metropolitan Police's public 
order branch, said he feared there could be "mass protest" at rising 
unemployment, failing financial institutions and the downturn in the 
economy.

The officer told The Guardian that "known activists" were planning 
returns to the streets, and intelligence revealed that they may be 
able to call on more protesters than normal due to the unprecedented 
conditions.

He said: "Those people would be good at motivating people, but they 
haven't had the 'foot soldiers' to actually carry out (protests).
"Obviously the downturn in the economy, unemployment, repossessions, 
changes that. Suddenly there is the opportunity for people to mass 
protest."

Mr Hartshorn, who is regularly briefed on potential causes of civil 
unrest, singled out April's G20 summit of the leading developed 
nations being held in London, as one of the events that could kick 
start a series of protests.
"We've got G20 coming and I think that is being advertised on some of 
the sites as the highlight of what they see as a 'summer of rage'," 
he said.

The officer added that banks, particularly those that still pay large 
bonuses despite receiving billions of aid from the taxpayer, had also 
become "viable targets" for protesters.

Other parts of Europe have already seen large-scale protests against 
the handling of the economy.