Acting together to overcome the crisis

Mirek Topolánek, Czech Prime Minister, President of the European Council, and Nicolas Sarkozy,French President. Photo: Council of the European Union

EU heads of state and government discussed the financial and economic crisis at an informal meeting held in Brussels on 1 March. They agreed that Europe must continue to act in a coordinated manner.

Leaders agreed on the following three lines of action:

• Building confidence and promoting financial stability

• Getting the real economy back on track

• Working together at the global level.

They recognised that it is vital to unblock credit flows and deal with impaired banking assets. It was considered essential to improve the regulation and supervision of financial institutions and to ensure long-term sustainability of public finances. Macro-financial stability should be strengthened throughout the EU, and help is envisaged for each member state facing temporary imbalances. Participants also pointed to the sound medium-term prospects and benefits resulting from EU integration.

Protectionism is not the answer - the single market should be the main vehicle to create growth and employment. Job losses should be limited by using tools such as the European Social Fund to their full potential. A special summit on employment will be held in May in Prague. As regards the European car industry, enhanced coordination of schemes for the renewal of car fleets was welcomed.

The meeting also concluded that the EU's internal efforts should be adequately reflected at the international level, underlining the importance of the G-20 summit to be held on 2 April in London.

More information:

Joint press lines(pdf)

Council webcast of press conference