Finance

European leaders meet in Paris

Article published on the 2008-10-04 Latest update 2008-10-04 15:49 TU

Jean-Claude Juncker, Silvio Berlusconi, Angela Merkel, Nicolas Sarkozy, Gordon Brown, Jose-Manuel Barroso and Jean-Claude Trichet.
(Photo: Reuters)

Saturday's meeting brought together French President Nicolas Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

The leaders of Europe's four G8-member countries were joined by the President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso, the President of the European Central Bank, Jean-Claude Trichet and Jean-Claude Junker, Chairman of the eurozone group.

After meeting earlier with Sarkozy, the head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn said the French leader wanted "a collective response" and said it was "the right response" to the current financial turmoil.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said earlier on Saturday that, at the meeting, he would propose a 15 billion euro fund to help small businesses cope with the international credit crisis. He also said "no sound and solvent banks should be allowed to fail because of a lack of liquidity."

Chancellor Merkel said the leaders would discuss "putting in place mechanisms of prevention".

Germany and the UK this week both rejected the idea of an emergency fund to support European banks holding bad debts. French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde said on Saturday that the mini-summit should allow for "more cooperation" in the EU.

French Prime Minister François Fillon commented that: "There is no reason to be afraid of French initiatives" and said that what France wanted to do was "prepare together the beginning of what could be a common European position on the renovation of our international financial institutions."