Michael de Laine

By Michael de Laine, The Copenhagen Voice, 2 April 2009

Attac Sweden has published a document that gives an indication of what the final communiqué of the G20 summit in London can be expected to cover in terms of decisions taken at today’s meeting of the world’s 19 largest single economies and the European Union.

The industrialised and emerging market economies will meet today at the London summit, which deals with the financial crisis and potential reforms of the global financial architecture.

The document, ‘Country positions for the London summit’, gives an overview of the official standpoints of participating countries on a variety of topics and provides an overview of what is likely to be agreed.

According to the body behind the report, the Bretton Woods Project, it covers only government positions and is based on information provided by individuals and organisations in most of the participating countries, as well as publicly available documents.

Among the subjects on the G20 agenda are reforming international financial institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and the Financial Stability Forum (a group of major national financial authorities such as finance ministries, central bankers and international financial bodies founded in 1999 to promote international financial stability).

In addition, changes to global governance will be discussed, including the role of G20 vis-à-vis other groupings and organisations, proposals for new economic councils and charters for them and for a new global regulator, improved cross-border co-operation, and tax havens.

Trade and protectionism, as well as development aid and the environment, are also on the agenda.

In terms of the result of the summit, the report says, “It remains unclear how much concrete will be agreed upon at the summit. Since there is no substantive agreement on tighter regulation nor fiscal stimulus, the focus might well be on IMF governance reform and increase in resources.”

Chairman of the US Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke said the G20 should rather come out with ‘principles’ not direct proposals, whereas UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling wrote that the G20 needs to ‘go beyond discussions about principles and make concrete commitments’, the document notes.

“It seems that the participants of the summit will allocate responsibilities for regulation to several organisations and institutions such as the IMF, FSF, BIS (Bank for International Settlements), colleges of supervisors, and standard setting bodies; rather than agreeing upon concrete changes in regulatory rules,” the Bretton Woods Project report concludes.

The Bretton Woods Project was created by a group of British non-governmental organisations (NGOs). It works as a networker, information-provider, media informant and watchdog to scrutinise and influence the World Bank and the IMF.

Attac Sweden is part of the world-wide popular movement Attac, which opposes neo-liberalism and works to put the issues of global justice and strengthening democracy at the top of the political agenda.