Downing Street Says » Global Europe Conference

Asked about the Global Europe conference next week, the PMS said that this was a meeting about the European economy, hosted by the Prime Minister. There would firstly be a trilateral meeting between the Prime Minister, President Sarkozy and President Barroso. This would be followed by a wider meeting of business leaders and economists, the purpose of which was to continue the discussions we had been having at international and European levels on how best to coordinate our response to the economic difficulties that all countries in Europe were facing at the moment. There was also a meeting of the European Council taking place at the end of next week where further discussions would take place.

Yesterday saw an announcement of a fiscal stimulus package in France, the equivalent of around 1.3% of GDP, which we welcomed. However, there was more that we all needed to do across Europe to ensure that we coordinated our response in the most effective way, and to ensure that we acted globally and internationally to deal with what was a global problem.

Asked if the Prime Minister would urge further fiscal action from European countries and if there would be a discussion about the Euro, the PMS said that we were not anticipating any discussion of the Euro, particularly in relation to British membership, which some people seemed to be getting a little excited about.

In relation to the first part of the question, it was for each country to determine what its response should be. There had been a statement from the G20, that all G20 countries had signed up to, calling for further fiscal action, as well as a statement from the European Commission recommending fiscal stimulus of around 1% of GDP across Europe. We had seen action in a number of countries and there was a widespread consensus on the need for fiscal policy to support monetary policy, not just in Britain but elsewhere.

Asked which business leaders and economists would be attending the Global Europe conference next week, the PMS said that some of the most senior business leaders in Britain and elsewhere were attending the meeting. There would be representatives from the Confederation of Business Industry and some of the other business groups, as well as representatives from leading European businesses.

Asked if the discussion with business leaders and economists would be made public, the PMS said that he didn t necessarily think that it would be public but there would a press conference afterwards.

Put that two similar meetings that took place earlier this year had involved Germany and Italy and asked if there was any reason those two countries wouldn t be represented at Monday s meeting, the PMS said that this was not a summit meeting or an intergovernmental meeting; it was a round table discussion that the Prime Minister was having with a number of business leaders and economists, which President Sarkozy and President Barroso were also attending.

Asked if Chancellor Merkel was invited, the PMS said that he would not get into the specifics on who was or was not invited. This was a different type of meeting to the meeting we had had in London in January, which was intergovernmental.

Asked if there was a risk that Chancellor Merkel would see this meeting as the British and the French cementing their position ahead of the EU Summit, the PMS said that that was not the intention of the meeting; we were in close contact with the Germans and the Prime Minister spoke regularly to Chancellor Merkel on economic and other issues.

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» Friday, December 5, 2008

Global Europe Conference

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