As the holder of the EU Presidency, Sweden will represent the EU at the summit, along with the European Commission. For Mikael Sandström, State Secretary and Sweden’s ‘sherpa’ ahead of the G20 summit, preparations are well underway. He has been in close contact with his international colleagues and is today in Washington for one of the last preparatory meetings ahead of Pittsburgh.

“There is a lot to be put in place now, with only a couple of weeks to go. We are discussing what should be on the agenda, there are a lot of issues to go through”, says Mikael Sandström

Action plan for an end to the crisis

The G20 summits are traditionally attended by the finance ministers and central bank directors from 19 countries (see below), plus representatives of the EU and other international organisations. However, in response to the financial and economic crisis, a G20 summit with heads of state and government was convened for the first time in Washington in November 2008. Also the UN Secretary-General, the Presidents of the World Bank and the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), among others, attended the summit. This configuration is still in place, as is the action plan that was agreed on in Washington, which addresses what measures the G20 countries must take to emerge from the economic crisis.

At the most recent G20 summit in London in the spring, the discussions on the action plan continued, and agreements were reached on a range of common measures to bring an end to the economic crisis and prevent similar crises happening in the future. The measures included supporting the world economy, repairing the financial system, strengthening financial regulation and reforming financial institutions, increasing international trade and countering protectionism, as well as working for sustainable and climate-friendly economic recovery.

“Now it is important to take this reasoning further. One of the aims of the Pittsburgh summit is to follow up how the countries have lived up to their commitments from Washington and London”, says Mikael Sandström, pointing out that he thinks it is positive that such clear anti-protectionism strains are being heard in the discussions.

“From the Swedish Presidency’s perspective, we see this as one of the key conditions to the success of the global economic recovery”, says Mikael Sandström.

Free trade and the climate from G8 to G20

Some of the issues that were discussed at the G8 summit in Italy at the beginning of July look set to be carried over to the agenda for the G20 summit. In Italy, it was agreed that an agreement should be attempted in the international trade negotiations in the Doha Round during 2010. Mikael Sandström thinks that both this issue and the financing of action on climate change will also be on the agenda in Pittsburgh.
“It is important to use all appropriate fora to try and make progress on these issues”, he says.

In December, the UN is organising a major international climate change conference in Copenhagen, where the countries of the world will agree on how they can together reduce climate change. The goal is to reach a new international agreement on climate change that will take over when the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012. According to Mikael Sandström, the G20 countries are not looking to replace the UN’s negotiating process, but at the same time he thinks it is important that discussions also take place in the G20.

“We must attack these problems on multiple fronts, and the G20 includes many of the world's key players on these issues. It is also a forum that brings together the finance ministers. Therefore, I hope that issues relating to the financing of action on climate change will be discussed in Pittsburgh”, says Mikael Sandström.

At the summit in Pittsburgh, the EU will be represented by the Swedish Presidency in the form of Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt and Minister for Finance Anders Borg.

Fact: The word ‘sherpa’ comes from the ethnic group in Nepal who often act as porters or guides for climbing expeditions in the Himalayas. In the present context, the sherpa is the Prime Minister’s ‘ambassador’ ahead of the meeting.

Footnote: The name of the meeting group, G20, is an abbreviation of ‘Group of 20’ and refers to the world’s 20 largest economies. The G20 was formally established in 1999 as a way to gather the world's largest industrialised nations and developing nations to discuss global economic issues. The G20 comprises Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the USA, along with the EU, represented by the country holding the Presidency and the European Commission.