Europe said today it was time to get tough with tax havens and strictly oversee all financial markets as part of sweeping reforms to avoid future meltdowns, Reuters reported. European Union leaders met in Berlin to forge a common approach to the global economic downturn that they can take to a meeting in April of the G20, a group of rich and big emerging economies charged with reforming the rules of world finance. They backed a doubling of funds for the International Monetary Fund, which has spent billions of dollars in recent months shoring up economies in eastern Europe and elsewhere. They also agreed to bolster the supervisory role of the Financial Stability Forum, set up after the 1990s Asian financial crisis, and enlarge it to include emerging economies as well as rich nations.
