English translation of Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek’s webcast.

‘G20 is a meeting of the EU and 19 countries and key financial institutions - ECB, WB and IMF. EU will meet economic powers from all continents except for Antarctica - Argentina and the U.S., France and South Africa, Russia and China, Saudi Arabia as well as Australia.

At the time of global crisis, this is attracting attention of the whole world. When the G20 was created, it had a reputation of "one of the G groups", nowadays it is number one among them.

It is the first meeting - or more precisely the second after Washington, where the significant players of the globally interconnected economy can share their experience - both good and bad - with solving the crisis and to agree on a coordinated approach.

As a President of the European Council I can confirm how demanding - although key - it is to come to a joint way forward while respecting uniform rules, how important it is to achieve this on a global level. This unity does not mean that everybody is in the same situation and that the same recipes would be valid to everyone. It is a joint coordination of approach at a forum, which is based upon support of world trade, investment into each state and maintaining of economic growth and stability.

Let me point out that the rules are regulated by mutual agreements, overseen by international institutions, but these are still rules of the free market. The EU has agreed on a common approach and also on a mandate that it will fulfil at the G20.

First there are stimuli packages - above all 400bn Euro of the European plan for economic recovery but also other tools. But these cannot impair the rules of the common market. If we are to tackle economic crisis as soon as possible and with minimum losses, we must reach such an agreement even with the most significant economies on the global scene.

It is understandable that on every country the economic crisis reflects in a different way, it has different economic, social and geographic lay-out, how to reduce its impact. What is valid for everybody is that all stimuli measures must be temporary ones and cannot break WTO and IMF rules, therefore must not continuously disturb economic competition. This is valid for the EU as well as for the U.S. or Russia and China. We have also agreed to provide €75 billion for the IMF. We agreed on a regulatory framework of the failing mechanisms and tools of the oversight of the financial market. We agreed on a renewal of Doha talks within the WTO to open up world trade.

The task of the G20 summit is to talk openly and work toward a common goal - how to harmonise national steps, in order that the globally interconnected economy remains without new barriers.

We are facing a crisis of unprecedented nature. The debate about it must be unprecedented too. It will not only decide to what extent we can face it together, but also about the future shape of the world market. What will be the role and the future of the G20 in it will be shown at the London Summit.’