EU to hold extraordinary summit ahead of financial meeting

Aug 25, 2009, 16:22 GMT

Brussels - European Union leaders are to hold an extraordinary summit on September 17 to prepare a common position ahead of a Group of 20 meeting on reforming global finance, diplomats in Brussels confirmed Tuesday.

The one-day summit in Brussels will take place exactly one week before G20 nations meet in Pittsburgh to discuss ways of restoring confidence in financial markets in the wake of a credit crunch, which has lead to the EU suffering from its worst recession in decades.

EU diplomats say it is important for the bloc's 27 heads of state and government to forge a common position ahead of the Pittsburgh meeting, whose European participants are expected to be Britain, France, Germany, Italy.

The EU as a whole is to be represented by Sweden, which currently holds the bloc's rotating presidency, and the European Central Bank.

The G20, which also includes the United States, Canada and major emerging economies such as India and China, represents around 90 per cent of global gross national product, 80 per cent of world trade and two-thirds of the world's population, according to the meeting's official website.

Differences within the EU have emerged over how to regulate financial markets, with Britain, host to the EU's biggest financial centre, the City of London, resisting calls for common supervision.

In Brussels, EU leaders will also want to discuss how to handle the bloc's slow economic recovery. While France and Germany posted positive growth figures in the second quarter of the year, the economies of other heavyweights such as Britain, Spain and Italy remain in recession.

Earlier Tuesday, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said that despite positive signs, the world economy remained volatile. The commission chief, who has pushed hard for major stimulus packages to be introduced, also urged governments not to become complacent.