EU FMs Reaffirm Commitment to Coordinated Response to Financial Crisis

    "There is no doubt it is a serious financial crisis, which requires this coordinated and common response," said Czech Deputy Prime Minister Alexandr Vondra, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, at a press conference following the first-day talks of the ministers' two-day meeting in Brussels.

    The meeting focused on the preparation of the March 1 informal EU summit, and the regular spring EU summit on March 19 and 20.

    The foreign ministers' meeting came after major EU nations agreed on Sunday on concrete measures to enforce supervision on the world financial markets.

    At a meeting in Berlin, leaders and finance ministers from Germany, Britain, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain and the Czech Republic agreed that all financial markets, products and participants, including hedge funds and credit rating agencies, should be put under tougher supervision or regulation, and called for tougher sanction mechanisms against tax havens and "uncooperative" financial centers.

    The Berlin meeting was aimed at forging a common EU position before the April 2 G20 financial summit in London.

    According to Vondra, the ministers discussed the EU's recovery plan and projects to be realized in the next few years with a view to boosting the economy, as well as those in the area of energy security in the light of this winter's gas crisis.

    About the March 19-20 EU summit, Vondra said it will mainly focus on three key issues.

    The most important topic will be the financial and economic situation, which demands the EU look for both short-term measures and long-term measures stemming from the Lisbon Strategy, said Vondra adding that the spring summit will try to agree on the mandate of the EU side for the G20 summit on April 2.

    The second issue will be energy security and climate change, and the third will be related to external relations, said Vondra.

    Vondra said the EU summit on March 19-20 will aim to adopt the Eastern Partnership agreement proposed by the European Commission late last year.

    Earlier reports have said that the EU leaders are planning to meet in Prague, the Czech Republic, on May 7 to launch the Eastern Partnership, an initiative designed to draw six post-Soviet states-- Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine -- closer to the EU.