How Far will Europe Push the World on Financial Reform?
By Ben Nimmo Brussels Europe’s leaders have already said that they want the world’s greatest powers to create a new brand of capitalism. When they meet in Brussels Friday ahead of a major world summit in Washington Nov 15, they have to agree on the much more difficult question of how far they should try to go right now. “The first, and perhaps most important point is that we really need to get a fully functional fire department. Eventually, we can have a discussion on the fire-safety norms for buildings,” Swedish Finance Minister Anders Borg characterized the debate. So far, three European Union (EU) members – Britain, France and the Netherlands – have circulated papers among their EU colleagues setting out how they think the EU should approach the Nov 15 talks. EU finance ministers have slapped down an early draft of the French paper as being “too detailed”, in a clear sign of the divisions which still prevail among the members. That leaves EU leaders facing make-or-break talks Friday
