Downing Street Says » European Council

The Prime Minister’s Spokesman (PMS) began by telling the assembled journalists that the main items on the agenda at the European Council tomorrow and Friday would be the European and global economy; an update on the issue regarding Ireland; climate change; Burma and the next President of the European Commission.

In relation to the economy the Prime Minister would be putting forward his proposals for an extra 50 billion of lending from the European Investment Bank (EIB) over the next two years. The Prime Minister had set out some of the background on this in an article in the Financial Times on 27 May. The purpose of the proposal was to boost the European economy, as well as to accelerate the rate at which the EIB lends. We were also expecting discussions on the next steps of the regulation of financial services.

There would be an update at the European Council on the latest situation regarding Ireland and the reassurances that Ireland had asked for so that they could move towards ratification of the Lisbon Treaty.

We were also expecting the European Council to discuss the principles for the financing of climate change projects and the issue of Burma would also be discussed, bearing in mind that the second day of the Council coincided with Aung San Suu Kyi’s 64th birthday.

Asked if the Prime Minister was confident that his concerns regarding the European regulators would be discussed at the European Council, the PMS said that they would be discussing the principles on European regulation of financial services and its next steps. There had been some discussion amongst EU Finance Ministers on this subject and the Chancellor had set out our position. We looked forward to a constructive discussion with other Member States.

Asked if the Prime Minister expected the European Council to endorse what was agreed on European regulators at Ecofin, the PMS said that there had been discussions on this at Ecofin but we did not want to pre-empt the discussions at the European Council.

Asked if the Prime Minister felt that there were any issues concerning for example the European Central Bank chairing the new European Risk Council, the PMS said that there were some specific points including this issue regarding the implementation of some of the streamlining of the systems governing regulation and financial services in Europe. However, a lot of the detailed discussions had been taking place at Finance Minister level.

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» Wednesday, June 17, 2009

European Council

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