LEADERS of the European Union moved on Friday December 11th to end a public squabble about whether the world of finance should follow “French” or “Anglo-Saxon” rules. Putting on a carefully staged show of unity at a summit in Brussels, the leaders of France and Britain urged colleagues to claim the moral high ground for Europe when it comes to paying to fight climate change and forging a “better relationship” between banks and society.
The display of amity between President Nicolas Sarkozy and the British prime minister, Gordon Brown, was sealed by a joint press conference in a hall decked out with French and British flags. The appearance, buttressed by joint Franco-British statements about climate change and banking rules, was designed to draw a line under a rocky couple of weeks which had seen Mr Sarkozy call the British “the big losers” of an EU power struggle over designing new finance rules.
Mr Sarkozy announced he would follow Mr Brown’s lead in imposing a one-off super tax on bankers’ bonuses for 2009. Mr Brown called Mr Sarkozy “one of my best friends”. The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, called the idea of a bonus tax “very charming”, and said there was a need to “curb bonuses” in general. But she declined to promise that bankers in Frankfurt would face the same pain as their colleagues in London or Paris. Mrs Merkel said that the problem of excessive bankers’ pay was “not as pressing as it is in London”, and noted that the German constitution makes it hard to slap new income taxes on specific sectors of the economy.
By the end of the summit the EU’s 27 countries had jointly pledged a total of €2.4 billion ($3.5 billion) in “fast-track” money for each year up to 2012, to be given to poor countries and small island states to help them cope with immediate problems linked to global warming. That figure will be put on the table at the Copenhagen climate-change conference. Britain, which is keen for Europe to stake a claim to global leadership on the subject, said it would contribute about a quarter of the fast-track funds: a commitment that almost doubled the total offered by Mr Brown at a Commonwealth conference a week earlier. Britain’s pledge was matched by Germany and France, which will put similar sums into the EU pot. However, environmental groups such as Friends of the Earth noted that most of the fast-track money on offer was a repackaging of aid already promised to the poor world.
EU leaders have another big decision ahead of them in the closing days of the Copenhagen conference. The 27-country block is committed to a unilateral cut in carbon-dioxide emissions of 20% over 1990 levels by 2020, or of 30% if other big polluters make “comparable” efforts. That 30% offer is designed to put pressure on rich countries such as America, Canada, Japan and Australia, and on big emerging economies such as China and India. EU officials admit that deciding what counts as a “comparable” effort will be an intensely political decision. To help focus minds, EU leaders said they would meet in Copenhagen on December 17th, and may hold a formal EU summit there, to decide whether to move to deeper emissions cuts.
European leaders also signalled a growing focus on protecting the world’s forests. Deforestation should be halved by 2020, and halted by 2030, Mr Sarkozy and Mr Brown said, with most of the bill falling to rich countries.
Asked by a British television station if European taxpayers could afford to send large sums to places like Africa to help offset the effects of climate change, Mr Sarkozy declared the cost of inaction would be much higher. Just 12km of water separates Africa from Europe at the Gibraltar Strait, Mr Sarkozy said, asking: “Do you think we can afford to leave them there in poverty?”:SugarwareZ-225::SugarwareZ-225:
The display of amity between President Nicolas Sarkozy and the British prime minister, Gordon Brown, was sealed by a joint press conference in a hall decked out with French and British flags. The appearance, buttressed by joint Franco-British statements about climate change and banking rules, was designed to draw a line under a rocky couple of weeks which had seen Mr Sarkozy call the British “the big losers” of an EU power struggle over designing new finance rules.
Mr Sarkozy announced he would follow Mr Brown’s lead in imposing a one-off super tax on bankers’ bonuses for 2009. Mr Brown called Mr Sarkozy “one of my best friends”. The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, called the idea of a bonus tax “very charming”, and said there was a need to “curb bonuses” in general. But she declined to promise that bankers in Frankfurt would face the same pain as their colleagues in London or Paris. Mrs Merkel said that the problem of excessive bankers’ pay was “not as pressing as it is in London”, and noted that the German constitution makes it hard to slap new income taxes on specific sectors of the economy.
By the end of the summit the EU’s 27 countries had jointly pledged a total of €2.4 billion ($3.5 billion) in “fast-track” money for each year up to 2012, to be given to poor countries and small island states to help them cope with immediate problems linked to global warming. That figure will be put on the table at the Copenhagen climate-change conference. Britain, which is keen for Europe to stake a claim to global leadership on the subject, said it would contribute about a quarter of the fast-track funds: a commitment that almost doubled the total offered by Mr Brown at a Commonwealth conference a week earlier. Britain’s pledge was matched by Germany and France, which will put similar sums into the EU pot. However, environmental groups such as Friends of the Earth noted that most of the fast-track money on offer was a repackaging of aid already promised to the poor world.
EU leaders have another big decision ahead of them in the closing days of the Copenhagen conference. The 27-country block is committed to a unilateral cut in carbon-dioxide emissions of 20% over 1990 levels by 2020, or of 30% if other big polluters make “comparable” efforts. That 30% offer is designed to put pressure on rich countries such as America, Canada, Japan and Australia, and on big emerging economies such as China and India. EU officials admit that deciding what counts as a “comparable” effort will be an intensely political decision. To help focus minds, EU leaders said they would meet in Copenhagen on December 17th, and may hold a formal EU summit there, to decide whether to move to deeper emissions cuts.
European leaders also signalled a growing focus on protecting the world’s forests. Deforestation should be halved by 2020, and halted by 2030, Mr Sarkozy and Mr Brown said, with most of the bill falling to rich countries.
Asked by a British television station if European taxpayers could afford to send large sums to places like Africa to help offset the effects of climate change, Mr Sarkozy declared the cost of inaction would be much higher. Just 12km of water separates Africa from Europe at the Gibraltar Strait, Mr Sarkozy said, asking: “Do you think we can afford to leave them there in poverty?”:SugarwareZ-225::SugarwareZ-225: