Euro Leaders To Meet
Posted by John Malloy on 10/12/2008
PARIS, France (AP) — President Nicolas Sarkozy said he
expects a meeting of 15 European leaders Sunday to produce an
ambitious, coordinated plan to battle the effects of the global
financial crisis.
German Chancellor Agnela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy speak to reporters Saturday.
Decisions taken by the heads of countries where the euro currency is
used will be submitted to the 12 remaining European Union countries at
an EU summit Wednesday, the French president said.
Before the summit, Sarkozy greeted each of the other European leaders on the steps
of the Elysee Palace. He met with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown,
whose partial bank nationalizations provide a potential model for
decisions by the euro-zone countries. Britain does not use the euro.
Some European officials said one proposal on the table was sure to be
government guarantees of interbank loans in order to unfreeze credit
markets locked up by fear and uncertainty among lending institutions.
Such broad guarantees would follow the lead of Britain.
Brown, writing in the Daily Mirror on Sunday, stressed the need for
drastic action because of the essential role played by banks; “getting
a mortgage, paying the bills and saving for old age.”
However, a comprehensive approach is needed, he wrote. “For Europe, the stakes
could not be higher and this is a moment of truth.”
Sunday’s meetings come after an exceptionally bad week on European markets, as
stock indexes dived across the continent despite individual government
steps.
Last weekend, the leaders of Europe’s four biggest
economies met but failed to agree on any specific plan. And on
Saturday, finance ministers of the Group of Seven met but did not
commit to anything firm.
The president of the European
Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, said he was hopeful leaders would
“take an important step forward today by agreeing to a clear response
for the euro area to the current crisis.” Barroso was present for the
meeting with Brown.
An “unprecedented level of coordination” is
needed to make clear to both Europeans and the markets of the ability
to act with a single voice, he said.
German Chancellor Angela
Merkel, stressing the need for a “coherent, efficient and synchronized”
response, said Saturday that a “common toolbox” could be the outcome of
the summit.
Individual countries “could use these tools to
respond to (their) particular situation,” she said after a meeting
outside Paris with Sarkozy.
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