European Business Club Event Celebrating the EU Summit on November 3rd, 2008 at the National Club
10. November 2008
The Special Guest of Honour was H.E. Ambassador Dorian Prince (Head of the Delegation of the European Commission to Canada ). In front of an audience of Diplomats, Presidents of numerous member Associations and guests, he gave an enthusiastic briefing of the Summit . He stated that after a period of benign neglect, since last year, after Prime Minister Harper went to Germany , enthusiasm for improved relations between the EU and Canada had grown substantially, resulting in this years' meeting from where many concrete indicatives were being worked on.
Growth will almost halt, says Brussels, as outlook for 2009 is "precarious"
The European Commission stated that Europe's economic growth will almost halt in 2009, but it is expected to be better than the US. While there was some confidence returning to the markets, the outlook was still "precarious". Expectations are that EU growth would slow from 1,4% in 2008 to just 0.2% in 2009. The Eurozone economy was expanding only 1.2% this year and expected to be only 0.1% in 2009. These figures are a dramatic downturn on forecasts made in April by the Commission, when it was expected that EU Growth would be 1.8% and 1.5% in the Eurozone in 2009. These figures led the EU Economic Affairs Commissioner, Joaquin Almunis to call for "coordinated action at the EU Level to support the economy in the way that governments had acted together to shore up the banking system"
European Army.
President Sarkozy has proposed that the EU develop a military structure with a new headquarters and rapid reaction force, with each member contributing 1,500 troops from each member country. Minister John Hutton (British Defense Secretary) stated that "France is one of our closest allies, militarily. The French believe very strongly in this type of role. If we can support it, we should". He added that "working with EU Allies on military missions is perfectly sensible "He sited plans for an EU mission to tackle piracy off Somalia as "a good example" of how such forces could be used.
Europe sets 100 days to draw a blueprint for ambitious reforms to the financial system
On Friday President Sarkozy hosted a Brussels meeting of European leaders in preparation of next weekends G20 meeting, where President Sarkozy said that they were united on how to reform the Global Financial system. He said that "We will be defending a common position, a vision for reforming our financial system ". The meeting set a 100 day deadline to draw up ambitious reforms. The leaders also agreed that the IMF should be "the pivot of a renewed international system, working alongside other bodies".
Canada
