José Manuel Barroso, the President of the European Commission, said that the European Union was united on all the key policies needed to tackle the financial crisis ahead of its Spring Council meeting this week. In an exclusive interview with this website, he said there was now a ‘great convergence’ between the United States and the EU on the policy priorities ahead of the London Summit on 2 April.

The Spring European Council of heads of state of the 27 EU member states on 19 and 20 March in Brussels will establish the EU’s position ahead of the London Summit, and also consider additional measures to address the current economic and financial crisis, paying particular attention to the employment situation.

Asked what the European Summit should achieve in order to help drive a successful outcome to the London Summit, Barroso said he wanted to see a 'Europe united' on four main points. These were:

• the need for fiscal stimulus to drive the economic recovery;
• the need to improve financial regulation and supervision;
• the need to address the problems of global trade, resist protectionism and all forms of economic nationalism; and
• the need to devote specific attention to the developing countries and the most vulnerable people in the world.
  

'If we agree on all these points then I think we have a very good basis for a successful G20 summit in London,' he told www.londonsummit.gov.uk

Barroso said the EU and United States had emerged from the meeting of the finance ministers and central bankers of the G20 group with a 'great convergence' on the need to respond to this crisis in several areas. These included the need for financial regulation, and the better supervision of the financial markets and a sustained effort towards economic recovery through the fiscal stimulus. He acknowledged there had been media reports of disagreements on this last issue but said: 'In fact we can agree that we need this additional kind of fiscal stimulus. There is a very important convergence on many issues including this one: the need to keep the situation under review and go on with the measures decided to stimulate the economy.'

Asked what single achievement he wanted to see emerge from the London Summit, he said that was impossible to say as they were so interlinked. 'The most important [outcome] is to go on with the global recovery economically in a coordinated manner and also to be [agreed] on the same principles and rules on the supervision of financial markets,' Barroso said. 'I think we need to put ethics back into the financial system. So if we can agree on those points it will be a very successful summit.'