The G20 meeting on 2 April in London should "formulate a strong and concrete response to the financial crisis," Le Maire told journalists in Brussels on Thursday (19 February).
"Nothing would be worse than giving this crisis a response that satisfies itself with general principles but does not lead to concrete solutions" on issues such as tax havens and banking supervision, he stressed.
Lemaire highlighted the tight agenda that European leaders face in the coming weeks, with a meeting of the European members of the G20 in Berlin on Sunday to prepare a joint European position ahead of the London G20 summit on 2 April (EurActiv 3/02/09).
Leaders from the 27 member bloc will meet again in Brussels on 1 March and 19-20 March for summits aimed at addressing the economic crisis and fleshing out EU efforts at cleaning up the financial sector.
Following calls from Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek, whose country currently holds the EU presidency, the summit will also seek to coordinate national responses to the crisis as governments scramble to save their industry, threatening to unravel EU cohesion (EurActiv 12/02/09).
"There is an imperative for Europeans to show a united front at the G20," said Le Maire, adding that the front was "not yet united" but there is still enough time left to reach a common position. EU countries, he said, had "economic situations and therefore economic interests which are different," but the objective of negotiations is precisely to overcome those differences and reach at a position which is "at the same time common and strong". "Not just common, but common and strong," Le Maire stressed.
A central element of the global response to the financial crisis will be how to deal with the "toxic assets" held by some banks. Identifying and putting a price on such bad debt will be central to any agreement, the Commission said earlier in February. A proposal from the EU executive is due before the end of February (EurActiv 11/02/09).
"Guarantees, recapitalisation and the treatment of impaired assets are necessary, but they are not sufficient," said Neelie Kroes, the EU's competition commissioner, before a European Parliament committee this week. "Tough decisions on restructuring or possible managed liquidation need to be made, and they need to be made very fast," Kroes said, according to Reuters.
