Barroso spreekt op persconferentie over resultaten informele EU-top over financiële crisis (en)
President of the European Commission
Opening remarks at the Joint Press Conference with the Czech Presidency on the Informal Meeting of the Heads of State or Government
Informal Meeting of the Heads of State or Government
Brussels, 1 March 2009
First of all let me congratulate Prime Minister Topolánek i and the Czech Presidency for organising this meeting. It was a good initiative; it was indeed very useful to have this very informal debate, very comprehensive debate, among European leaders regarding the situation we face and next steps. We all know it's a very difficult and serious situation. Not only for Europe but globally, our major partners are also in a very difficult situation indeed. And so it was important to have this informal discussion about the way our plans are being implemented and what we can do for the future and I'd like to underline the high level of convergence that was achieved during this meeting, in fact a meeting of minds, a meeting of purposes.
First of all, stressing the point that we should keep what we have agreed on and focus on implementation. If we put together the fiscal stimulus and automatic stabilisers, the effort of the EU for these two years, is between 3% and 4% of GDP, at least 3.3% of GDP. It's a very important effort. And this was indeed a point of convergence between all the leaders during our meeting.
Secondly, and this for me was particularly important, the agreement to keep our rules and principles, regarding internal market, regarding financial stability, regarding a common approach to global supervision regulation, and also regarding open economies, namely regarding the need to fight protectionism.
Regarding the internal market, it was very clearly stated that the internal market is the engine for recovery, to support growth and jobs. And there was a clear support for the role of the Commission as guardian of the treaties, to avoid any kind of fragmentation of the internal market. And in fact we have discussed specific issues, namely the automotive sector, and I was very happy to see, the support for the communication that the European Commission made public this week regarding the automotive sector, and how it is possible to support the automotive sector but not break the rules of the internal market, and not coming to national measures that could be detrimental to other countries.
The second point is financial stability, and there was support to the idea of long term sustainability of public finances in line with the stability and growth pact. By the way the President of the ECB was also invited; there was a good discussion about this, but also the need to avoid situations where decisions taken by certain Member States could have a negative impact on the banks of other Member States. And I think it was important that we have agreed that we should, regarding the banking sector, confirm that support for parent banks should not imply any restrictions on the activities of subsidiaries in the EU host countries. So there was a decision to instruct the ECOFIN Council to keep the situation and the review working closer with the Commission to draw up elements to help countries facing temporary imbalances, if required, on the basis of all available instruments. This idea of avoiding also in internal market, financial internal market any kind of split is also a very good point.
Third, regarding financial stability; we have agreed that before the issue of the banking financial sector is indeed addressed, it is difficult to find an overall solution. That is why it is important to do everything to restore the flow of credit from the financial sector to the so called real economy. And the leaders also welcomed the guidelines that the European Commission made public this week in terms of impaired assets, there was an overall agreement and I think that a decision can be taken now in the formal Spring European Council supporting those guidelines. It's an extremely complex situation, but it was great to see that there is a great convergence about the need to have a European framework, the situations are very different in our Member States, but there is an agreement on a common framework to deal with impaired assets in the European Union.
There really was regarding financial matters a great endorsement of the general lines of the High level group that I have established under the leadership of M. de Larosière regarding financial regulation and supervision. It was very well received, and I hope that already in June we can agree at the European Council level on the main lines.
It is important because Europe is trying to propose to the rest of the world some principles and some rules, and I believe that only if we adopt them for ourselves, we are on a position to work with our colleagues in the G20 and other partners globally, to have this kind of common approach. And this was the point where there was an agreement, the need for the European Union to go with a coordinated and coherent position to the G20 in London on the 2 April, and I think those lines were in fact also consolidated.
To conclude, I'd say that this was a very good meeting, where I really perceiving a spirit of solidarity and responsibility. The need to, precisely because as the Czech Presidency says in its motto it's Europe without barriers, to have Europe without barriers, we need rules, a Europe with common principles, and I think it was today the spirit of this meeting. I hope that now the spirit is translated into concrete decisions namely in the next Summit, the formal summit that we are going to have this month, and on this week on Wednesday the Commission will propose a communication with ideas for this Summit. Once again congratulations to the Czech Presidency and to Mirek Topolánek for having this initiative that was indeed a very good exchange of views among all the Heads of States or government of the European Union.