This is a clear example of nature abhoring a vacuum. In the absence of any effective government here in London France comes up ready with another twist in its plan to make the whole European economy a harmonised and centrally controlled unit. Furthermore this specific dêmarche is designed to get the whole EU ‘singing from the same hymn-sheet’ at the G20 summit one-week later. The communist Soviet Union would have suited him fine.
Meanwhile Sarkozy makes the running and Brown-Darling are nowhere to be seen.
Christina
==================================
EU OBSERVER
26.8.09
EU to hold special summit on financial reform
LUCIA KUBOSOVA
EU leaders are to gather on 17 September for an extra summit to decide Europe's position ahead of global talks on financial reform, with French President Nicolas Sarkozy pushing for bank managers to freeze their bonuses.
Diplomats confirmed on Tuesday (25 August) the date of the expected top-level one-day session in Brussels to be organised by the current Swedish presidency of the EU, the DPA agency reports.
The presidents and premiers of 27 EU member states are due to hammer out their common stance on the changes needed to restore confidence in the world's financial markets, which has suffered as a result of the worst financial and economic crisis since the 1930s.
The meeting will take place one week before the G20 gathering in Pittsburgh in the US, where leaders of the leading industrialised nations as well as the biggest emerging economies such as China and India, will discuss the same issues on a global level.
There are clear differences among the EU states on how to tackle the need for a stronger financial regulation. London, the seat of several leading financial institutions, is against new types of common supervision.
Paris, on the opposite side, favours tough new measures to regulate financial markets. In particular, French President Nicolas Sarkozy is keen to push through new limits on bank manager remuneration.
After meeting with French bank executives in Paris on Tuesday (25 August), Mr Sarkozy warned that his government would cease working with banks that refuse to accept proposed limits on compensation for traders.
"From now on, France will give no mandates to banks that don't apply these rules," he said, according to Bloomberg.
"It is possible to change the rules of financial capitalism," he added, pointing out that he would bring forward similar proposals to the G20 meeting in Pittsburgh.
"The problem is global and has to be treated globally. France won't accept the most minimal position or wait to act," said the French president.
Economic recovery
Leaders participating in the global summit are also due to discuss ways to boost the economy.
Although some EU states, mainly Germany and France, have already slipped out of recession, a majority of countries are still facing economic turbulence.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said on Tuesday that despite positive signals, the world economy remained volatile.
"The impact of the financial and economic crisis is still tangible in Europe and we have much still to do," he said at a joint press conference with Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite.
"Several European countries are seeing encouraging signs of recovery, but firm recovery is not here yet," Mr Barroso warned.
Posts
