Transatlantic relations

On Friday March 20, EU leaders met to establish a common strategy ahead next month’s G20 Summit in London. EU member states will collectively advocate for tighter global regulation of financial markets, and a stricter approach to tax havens. EU members of the G20 will ask their fellow members to guarantee ‘appropriate regulation and oversight of all financial markets, products and participants that may present a systemic risk, without exception and regardless of their country of domicile.’ The head of stated decided to double loans available to eastern Europe to 50 billion euro and to support the IMF with additional 75 billion euro.

Image: []European Commission Audiovisual Service->http://ec.europa.eu/avservices/down...

This is the reaction of Sigmar Gabriel, the German Environment Minister after President Bush announced his plan to tackle climate change. This speech, coming from the man who withdrew from the Kyoto protocol after being elected in 2000, could be seen as a breakthrough. For the first time President Bush has clearly recognized the necessity for legislation at the federal level to deal with green house gas emissions and the value of the cap and trade system. His plan aims at halting CO2 emissions by 2025, but not cutting them. European leaders including Environment Commissioner Stravos Dimas argue that this is too little too late; the US already emits twice as much CO2 per inhabitant as the EU… Fortunately, the three senators still in the race for the US presidency all have more ambitious environmental objectives. One can only hope that 2008 will be the beginning of a new era in US environmental policy.

On Tuesday primaries will be held in 22 States including New York State and California to help designate the candidates of the Republican and Democratic parties for the 2008 presidential elections. In the Republican camp, Arizona Senator John Mc Cain appears as the front runner after his win in the Florida primary but is expecting a challenge from the millionaire and former governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney. Within the Democratic party the race is even closer as Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama are neck and neck in the polls after having won two major primaries each. When the dust clears on Wednesday morning we may know who the final contestants in the November polls will be but the race may not be over yet…