European Union leaders said Friday they were leading world efforts to reform global finance by agreeing on a common set of principles and on five specific recommendations to avert future credit crunches, reported the Deutsche Presse Agentur dpa. The common EU position, agreed after more than three hours of "intense" discussions over lunch in Brussels, is intended to lay the groundwork for a Group of 20 summit of the world's leading economies, such as the United States, China and India, due to take place in Washington on November 15. "We want to change the rules of the game in the financial world," said French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the EU. "We Europeans are proposing to the rest of the world some common principles, some common rules," said European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso. Europe's "vision" for restructuring the global financial system is based on four broad principles: a crackdown on tax havens and unregulated financial institutions; better accountability and transparency; crisis prevention; and a "central" role for the International Monetary Fund (IMF). --More
