Crisis Strategies
February 2, 2009
Merkel's French counterpart, Nicolas Sarkozy, is also said to be mulling an extraordinary meeting to discuss the crisis, according to press reports.
Although Merkel did not announce an exact date, she wants representatives of Europe's G20 members -- Britain, France, Italy, Turkey and the European Union -- to gather in the German capital ahead of the G20 summit on April 2 in London. She announced her plans in her weekend video address.
Merkel is seeking to improve financial transparency and has called for stricter supervision of the global finance industry. At the World Economic Forum in Davos on Friday, she called for an international economic body to be set up, charged with the task of preventing rather than reacting to crises.
"This may even lead to a UN Economic Council, just as the (UN) Security Council was created after the Second World War," she said.
Sarkozy's office denies report of extra meeting
At the same time, the French daily Le Monde reported in its Sunday edition that Sarkozy is calling for an extraordinary meeting of eurozone countries. Sarkozy chaired the EU until Dec. 31, 2008, when the Czech Republic took over the rotating presidency. The report in Le Monde suggests that the French administration finds the Czech presidency "too passive, just like the European Commission, which could be a little more imaginative."
A French presidency spokesman has denied the newspaper's report, telling Reuters news agency that an emergency eurozone meeting "is not on the agenda" of the president.
The issue is likely to be addressed during a scheduled television appearance by Sarkozy on Thursday, and discussed in detail when he meets Merkel on Saturday for an annual security conference in Munich.