EU leaders push for global financial overhaul

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Source: CCTV.com | 10-16-2008 08:34

European leaders are pressing for a coordinated international response to the global financial crisis, including an overhaul of the world's financial structures.

France's President Nicolas Sarkozy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso attend a news conference on the first day of a EU summit in Brussels October 15, 2008. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol (BELGIUM)

Heads of governments from the 27 European Union nations have kicked off a summit meeting in Brussels. The global financial sitution is expected to dominate the two-day discussions.

Despite unprecedented rescues of banking giants this week, European leaders meeting in Brussels feared that the current economic crisis could still plunge the global economy into recession.

The EU Commissioner for Monetary Affairs said Europe's real economy was starting to suffer from the crisis.

Joaquin Almunia, EU Commissioner for Monetary Affairs, said, "To continue developing a coordinated approach at a European level to fix the problems in the financial markets, and to start thinking how to better organize the whole economy because we are starting to suffer in the real economy, in the non-financial sector of our economy."

Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso give a news conference after their meeting at the European  Commission headquarters in Brussels October 15, 2008. (Sebastien Pirlet/Reuters)

French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, who is chairing the talks, is trying to get all 27 leaders to back a plan to shore up the banking sector. German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed support for the plan, which was agreed on Sunday by Britain and the 15 countries that use the euro.