World summit to fight financial crisis

US and European leaders agree to series of summits on world finance. Commission president José Manuel Barroso and current EU and French president Nicolas Sarkozy discussed the global economic turmoil with US president George W Bush at Camp David over the weekend.

The three leaders agreed to take steps to set up a series of international meetings to review efforts to address the crisis and seek agreement on how to prevent a reoccurrence. “World leaders will be consulted about the idea of a first summit of heads of government to be held in the US soon after the US elections [on 4 November],” a joint statement said.

EU leaders have called for more coordination of efforts to restore confidence in markets as well as increased oversight and tighter regulation of world financial markets. Last week the US adopted a financial bailout plan modelled on the European approach.

The EU rescue plan allows governments to guarantee bank lending, provide short-term liquidity and partly nationalise some banks. EU governments have committed more than €2tr to the rescue effort.