EU: Too early to discuss global financial reform

By Cui Xiaohuo (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-03-30 07:22

The European Union (EU) said yesterday that it is "too early" to discuss China's recent calls for reform of the global financial regime during the G20 summit this week.

Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang (R) meets with Benita Ferrero-Waldner, commissioner for external relations of the European Commission, in Beijing, March 29, 2009.[Xinhua]

Instead, said EU Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the London gathering of top world leaders will focus on concrete measures on how to revive the global economy amid the financial crisis.

"I think it is a little bit too early (to discuss China's proposal)," the commissioner told reporters after meeting with Vice-Premier Li Keqiang and Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi in Beijing.

Related readings:  FM: Relationship with EU got off to good start this year  China calls for increasing cooperation with EU  Diplomat urges mutual trust to better China-EU ties  EU takes different approach to financial crisis

China last Thursday called for a global currency under the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to replace the US dollar as the reserve currency.

"I think it is within the IMF, it is within the international financial institutions, that these questions have to be discussed," said Ferrero-Waldner.

The commissioner said she is in Beijing to prepare for the G20 summit so that "big global actors" can reach consensus on how to cope with the crisis after the London gathering.

She also said that her visit is to prepare for a long-delayed summit between China and the EU, now scheduled for May.

Beijing called off the summit last December in protest against French President Nicolas Sarkozy's meeting with the Dalai Lama when Paris held the six-month rotating EU presidency.

Yang said China-EU relations got off to a good start this year, singling out Premier Wen Jiabao's visit to Europe in January.

China Effort

• China calls for increasing cooperation with EU
• Central bank urges int'l financial reform
• Loan companies to help small enterprises
• Auditor vows to closely monitor stimulus projects
• Diplomat urges mutual trust to better China-EU ties
• more

Global Action

• British FM: G20 needs more than empty words
• UN urges G20 to back $1t aid for poor nations
• EU leaders agree to lend 75 billion euros to IMF
• Obama calls for global action amid crisis
• IMF says clean up banks to tackle dire world crisis
• more

Related Coverage

• Hu at G20 and APEC
• China Statistics
• 2009 NPC and CPPCC
• Chinese Economy
• World Financial Crisis
• more