EU Leaders Back Sweeping Financial Regulations

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By AP / PATRICK McGROARTY

(BERLIN) — European leaders backed sweeping new regulations for financial markets and hedge funds at a summit Sunday in Berlin as politicians and nations scrambled to tame the global economic crisis.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel hosted heads of state and finance ministers from Europe's largest economies to try to establish a common European position on economic reforms before an April 2 summit of the Group of 20 nations. "All financial markets, products and participants including hedge funds and other private pools of capital which may pose a systematic risk must be subjected to appropriate oversight or regulation," Merkel said in a statement released on behalf of the summit members, following the talks.

Top officials from Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Spain, the Netherlands and Czech Republic agreed on seven key points during their one-day meeting in Berlin, the statement said.

"A clear message and concrete action are necessary to engender new confidence in the markets and to put the world back on a path toward more growth and employment," Merkel said.

But the call for blanket global regulation was sure to be resisted by the financial industry and may not be welcomed completely by other members of the G-20, which in addition to European nations includes the United States, China, Japan and developing nations like India and Brazil.

European leaders backed Merkel's call for a "charter of sustainable economic activity" to reduce economic imbalances and stabilize financial markets.

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http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8...1881168,00.html