Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-11-24-Speech-3-085"
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"en.20101124.7.3-085"2
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"Mr President, before this month’s Seoul Summit there was concern that once the pressure of the crisis which brought G20 countries together was receding, the G20 would find it impossible to fulfil its role as the primary forum for global economic coordination. After this month’s Seoul Summit I can reassure you that that negative scenario was not confirmed. We have seen the G20 move from crisis mode to a more stable approach to global governance.
A fourth achievement at the Summit was keeping up the momentum for global financial regulatory reform, with a clear focus on implementation. We welcome the endorsement of the Basel III reform and the fact that the G20 will continue to work on systemically important financial institutions. The G20’s financial reform efforts will continue in areas like macro-prudential policy frameworks, shadow banking, commodity derivative markets and market integrity and efficiency.
The European Union is in the lead on many of these points and our internal work will feed into the G20 process. It is now important to ensure strict and consistent implementation of all these commitments according to the agreed timetable, to ensure a global level playing field. We have received strong assurances from the United States that they share our determination on this. The Seoul Summit also created new momentum to conclude the Doha Round and reiterated the G20 commitment to fight protectionism in all its forms.
An achievement which gives me personal satisfaction is that with the Seoul Development Consensus interlocking development, trade and investment, we have firmly placed development on the G20 agenda. This new growth-oriented approach will complement existing donor focus activities and the United Nations system. It will boost our efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and it is perfectly in line with the Commission’s recent proposals in its Green Paper on the future of development policy. This Green Paper is now open for consultation and I look forward to input from this House.
Finally, I strongly welcome the G20’s commitment to the G20 Anti-Corruption Action Plan, to future work on energy-related issues and to sparing no effort in reaching a balanced and successful outcome at the climate negotiations in Cancún.
Mr President, honourable Members, the growing interest shown by representatives of companies and trade unions is clear proof that the G20 process has now established itself as the major forum for global economic coordination. I took part in the G20 business summit as well, where I highlighted the importance of companies’ social responsibility. I also welcomed delegations of trade unionists from Europe, North and South America, and Asia. I agreed with those delegations, brought by the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), that employment must take priority, and I underlined the fact that Europe was indeed proposing that employment and the social dimension should be included in the conclusions.
Since the Seoul Summit, we have begun to focus our attention on the next G20 Presidency and the Cannes Summit in November 2011. We should make the most of this opportunity to have one of our Member States in the driving seat. We should establish our position without delay and actively help to shape the G20 agenda in a coordinated way.
The Commission is ready to lend its full support to all of the French Presidency’s priorities. One of those is reforming the International Monetary Fund (IMF), for which we will need to establish a series of consistent proposals, particularly in order to improve stability and reduce the volatility of exchange rates.
Another priority concerns the volatility of the prices of raw materials. The Commission will be making an assessment of the primary markets of all raw materials in the coming months.
We should see the French Presidency as a unique opportunity for Europe to make its mark on the worldwide G20 agenda. If we continue to act together at G20 level, Europe will consolidate its position at the centre of the global economic and financial debate and will play a key role in shaping our response to global challenges.
Despite difficult issues under discussion and the fact that some other issues like the taxation of the financial sector were not agreed, the G20 once again delivered an important message of global determination; it made real and steady progress on addressing global economic challenges. I know the results were received with some scepticism because there was no spectacular, last-minute breakthrough perfectly timed for the evening news. But what the sceptics fail to understand is that the G20 process itself is spectacular news; it is not like our European, more integrated process where everyone round the table shares a common culture of negotiation and compromise.
Apart from the European Union and some of its Member States, the G20 includes countries as diverse as the US and China, Russia, Brazil and Japan, Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Korea, South Africa. The very fact that they are engaged in a joint process of addressing global imbalance and agreeing, for example, on financial regulation, should be recognised for what it is: enormous progress that would simply have not been possible some years ago, and the Seoul Summit was an important further step in that process and the launching of a new agenda, not a one-off spectacular event.
So, yes, it was a success and I think the European Union, represented by myself and the President of the European Council, can be satisfied with the Summit conclusions. In fact, we made a very important contribution also at finance minister level where the European Union was represented by Olli Rehn, the Commissioner responsible for that area. On the whole, the conclusions reflect the priorities the European Union set out ahead of Seoul and the European Union should be proud of the very important contribution it is making to this process.
Let me highlight some of the key achievements: first and foremost, the European Union wanted this Summit to make progress on joint action to boost global growth and jobs and to give answers on how to address global imbalances and currency tensions. We all knew it would be an uphill struggle to find a commonly agreed way to tackle global imbalances, but the G20 after long, hard negotiations opted for a cooperative solution setting in place a mechanism and a timeline which brings our economies together to address this issue.
The G20 partners committed to reducing excessive imbalances and to maintaining current account imbalances at sustainable levels. Do not underestimate the significance of this. The G20 discussion on how to address imbalances showed that the EU is ahead of the curve. The results of our own thinking on European Union internal imbalances inspired G20 leaders as the best way to tackle global imbalances. Our method of using indicators to trigger an assessment of macro-economic imbalances and their root causes is at the basis of the new G20 mechanism. It will be set up by mid-2011, with the first assessment before the next Summit in November 2011.
Our focus now will be on strengthening this mechanism as much as possible and ensuring it is properly applied during the French G20 Presidency in 2011. So, the conclusions were important but I agree that now we have to see how they will be implemented.
The second achievement relates to currency rates. There will be no success in rebalancing growth without addressing currency tensions. Once again the European Union helped to build a G20 consensus on cooperative solutions. We have agreed to move towards more market-determined exchange rate systems that reflect underlying economic fundamentals. We also agreed to refrain from comparing the evaluations and to be vigilant against excess volatility and disorderly movements in exchange rates.
This resolve provides political momentum for the French G20 Presidency that will take up a comprehensive reform of the international monetary system. I am also happy to see that the G20 summit endorsed the historic reform of the IMF. Indeed, we have exceeded the Pittsburgh expectations on the quota shift and on the representation of emerging economies. Thanks to the open and cooperative approach of EU Member States, our significant concessions and our ability to share responsibility means that the Fund now has the legitimacy it needs to take on the challenging tasks ahead, particularly addressing imbalances and currency tensions. Emerging economies now have to prove that in return for increased representation, they are willing to shoulder increased responsibility for global economic governance."@en1
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