02/04/2009
G20 – European conservatives block what world needs most
Commenting on the outcome of the G20, PES President Poul Nyrup Rasmussen said “Gordon Brown has done a magnificent job to bring about an agreement. The G20 had important successes and one big disappointment. On the positive side are the tripling of IMF funds and agreement on financial regulation. There are useful commitments to clamp down on tax havens, reform the IMF, complete the Doha world trade round and clean up toxic assets but there is still a long way to go to achieve them. The failure to agree a new stimulus is a major disappointment. European conservatives Sarkozy and Merkel have blocked what the world most urgently needs - a new stimulus to create jobs.”
“The world needs a new stimulus, not later, not in the future, but now. It is fine to agree that more will be done later if the IMF recommends it, but the IMF has already recommended a 2% of GDP investment in jobs and growth and Europe has not made that investment. So what I want to know is when the European Commission will come up with a new and updated recovery plan that meets the recommendations of the IMF?”
“We have to keep up the pressure on European conservative Presidents and Chancellors who refuse to invest what’s needed to create new jobs. They say Europe has done enough. I say Europe has a lot more to do to get the unemployed back to work.”
“We will see how serious the European Commission is about financial market regulation when it publishes its proposals on hedge funds and private equity later in the month.”
“The G20 is a good start but if we really want a Global New Deal we also need to keep working for more concrete progress on climate change, the Millennium Development Goals, decent work and the wide-ranging reform of the international institutions.”
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Julian Scola, Communications Advisor - Media & Campaigns
Party of European Socialists, Rue du Trône, 98, B-1050 Brussels
Mobile +32 486 117 394
julian.scola@pes.org
