Disagreements between the European Union and the US over how to combat the global recession widened yesterday as EU governments made clear they had little appetite for piling up more debt to fight the collapse in output and jobs.
Finance ministers from the 27-nation bloc insisted in Brussels that it was doing enough to support world demand and did not need at present to adopt another fiscal stimulus plan, as Washington is urging.
The US-European differences are casting a shadow over next month's summit in London of leaders from the G20 group of advanced and emerging economies, an event to be attended by Barack Obama on his first visit to Europe as US president.
It also emerged that Gordon Brown, UK prime minister, was struggling to organise the summit. Britain's most senior civil servant claimed it was hard to find anyone to speak to at the US Treasury. Sir Gus O'Donnell, cabinet secretary, blamed the “absolute madness” of the US system where a new administration had to hire new officials from scratch, leaving a decision-making vacuum.
“There is nobody there. You cannot believe how difficult it is,” he told a conference of civil servants.
France, Germany and Italy, the eurozone's three biggest countries, are anxious that the 16 countries sharing the euro should not run up ever-bigger budget deficits and public debt, potentially threatening the stability of the single currency area.
Ben Bernanke, chairman of the US Federal Reserve, warned yesterday against expecting too much from the G20 summit on April 2. “I think it's asking too much for a meeting like that to come out with detailed proposals in many different areas,” he said. “I think the better goal for a meeting of leaders would be, as much as possible, to establish some principles that would guide reforms around the world.”
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