WORLD> Europe
UK wins concessions on EU bank reform
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-06-20 09:22

"If we had not taken this decision we could be accused of falling behind the Americans and not meeting our G20 commitments," said French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who said the EU had made " spectacular progress" in tightening financial sector regulation.

Despite the doubts of the effectiveness of the European measures given the compromise to please London, the moves reflect the recognition on both sides of the Atlantic that tougher regulations are needed to control the financial markets.

"The financial crisis has clearly demonstrated the need to improve the regulation and supervision of financial institutions, both in Europe and globally," said the summit statement." Addressing the failures exposed by the present crisis will contribute to preventing future ones."

EU leaders warned that the impact of the crisis remains serious and the outcome uncertain. However, they were encouraged by tentative signs of recovery, saying there was no need for further stimulus spending to pump up the economy.

Indeed after committing to inject billions of taxpayers money to boost growth over the past few months, they stressed the need to develop a "credible exit strategy" that would start to cut budget deficits and start the long and painful process of moving back to fiscal balance.

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