G 20 Pres. Sarkozy Press Conference
Nicolas Sarkozy: euro is at the heart of Europe
President Sarkozy said the G20 had worked hard on the economic situation in a serious atmosphere due to fears of a slowdown in growth that would affect the whole world: in front of this fear, all members of the G20 shown a desire to better coordinate economic policies" and "countries with a surplus balance of payments need to consume more. So far, much of the discussion focused on the euro area: " There was a meeting this afternoon with François Baroin, Wolfgang Schäuble, Mr Tremonti, Commissioner Olli Rehn, in order to prepare the work for setting up a very short time of the European Financial Stability Fund. With regard to Greece, I would simply say that things are progressing." Then, referring to the report of Bill Gates on development and Tijani Thiam's report, Nicolas Sarkozy hammered: "The French presidency said in the clearest way that the poorest countries could not be victimized twice by the crisis. Once because they suffer of the crisis like others and once because the budget deficits of developed countries would prevent to meet obligations of public funding. It was necessary to move towards innovative financing. France has again pleaded for the establishment of a tax on financial transactions which I am sure is technically possible - the commission has done an excellent job on the subject - and that is financially necessary because of the crisis and that it is morally an absolute must." On this subject, Nicolas Sarkozy rejoiced that Germany, Brazil and Argentina to support this idea. He then turned to world trade: "All countries indicated that protectionism was by no means the solution, that free trade needed to be promoted, but the method had to change, we were not forced to stay in the same strategy that resulted in years at the same failure. Returning to Europe after a question, the President said: "In any case, we can talk out of sight on the subject, we have a problem to solve. The problem today is very simple: the euro is the heart of Europe. And Europe is the heart of French politics. We can not accept the explosion of the euro would mean the explosion of Europe. The problem should be posed in this way and not another. If the euro is the heart of Europe, the explosion of the euro would blow Europe. Now Europe is the guarantee of peace on the continent where it has ben behaved in the most brutal and most violent of all the continents of the world, not in the fifteenth century, but in the twentieth century. And it is perfectly normal for two founding countries of Europe and the first two European economies go up on the front line to defend a European heritage that has been bequeathed by our predecessors. The issue of euro crisis is probably one of the biggest crises ever experienced in Europe - and not just the euro, Europe - since its inception. The issue is credibility. This is the whole purpose of the discussions we have right now between Europeans, I mean the States and among Europeans, I mean the institutions at large and also with other institutions, I think the IMF and to other countries, I think the United States and other partners available to support the euro area and carry a message of confidence in the euro. These are all of these discussions that I hope will lead to decisions that you will allow us to specify the technical implementation of the fund." and "We have the concern to do something credible, ambitious and fast. It is exactly this point that we work and I can tell you though that the views are similar between Europeans and between Europeans and their allies.
