The European Union and Brazil intend to speak in the future "with one voice" on the international finance crisis, the presidents of France and Brazil said Monday at the second EU- Brazil summit, dpa reported.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the current EU president, and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said their positions were close to one another and would be heard at the next G20 meeting on April 2 in London, when emergency talks continue in the search for a new global financial order, Sarkozy said after the meetings.
EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso also participated in the meetings.
"Europe and Brazil must speak with one voice to change how the world reacts to such crises," Sarkozy said. This was true not only of the financial crisis, but also of the need to bring the Doha round of world trade talks to a successful conclusion, of the need for alternative energy sources and of the need to halt climate change, Sarkozy said.
Lula emphasized the "overlapping interests" of his country and those of the EU, which allows cooperation in these "unsure and turbulent times."
"The crisis offers the possibility for developing as well as developed countries to find common answers to the most difficult challenges of current times," Lula said.
The two leaders envisioned a path that would lead to a free trade pact between Mercosur and the EU, Lula said.
Lula also called for far reaching reforms of the finance sector. The current crisis was the result of "shameless speculation," he said. Sarkozy and Barroso emphasized the growing stature of Brazil as a developing industrial country and regional power.
"Who wants to try to solve the problems of the world without countries like China, India and Brazil?" Sarkozy asked in an interview.
The summit was to be followed by a bilateral meeting between France and Brazil, in which the two were to discuss a joint building of a nuclear-powered submarine for the Brazilian Navy.
The trade volume between Brazil and the EU was about 77 billion dollars in the first 11 months this year, an increase of 26 per cent over the same period last year. That would make the EU Brazil's most important trade partner, followed by the US.
EU countries also head the list of investors, with 18.4 billion dollars in 2007, the equivalent of 54.6 per cent of all foreign investments in Brazil.
