The heads of state or government of the 27 member states of the European Union also met on Sunday, in an informal summit of the European Council in Brussels. The meeting, called by the Czech presidency, had an in-depth discussion on the current financial and economic crisis and agreed to take action on several fronts: building confidence and promoting financial stability; getting the real economy back to work; and joint action at global level.

Among the decisions taken, the meeting stressed that protectionism was no answer to the current crisis, and welcomed enhanced European coordination of schemes for the renewal of car fleets. It identified restoring the flow of credit as a priority, and underlined the importance of dealing with impaired banking assets. It welcomed the recent report on financial regulation from a group chaired by Jacques de Larosière, a former managing director of the IMF, and said decisions would be taken by June. And it said every opportunity would be taken to build the consensus needed for a rapid conclusion of the Doha trade negotiations.

The informal summit will be followed by the Spring European Council on 19 and 20 March 2009 in Brussels – just 13 days before the London Summit. The EU leaders said they would use that meeting to prepare the EU’s position so it can play a leading role in the G20 process.