How can one possibly respond to the current worldwide financial instability? This is the question which today’s meeting of the EU’s economic and finance ministers in Luxembourg focuses upon. The meeting will be attended by the 27 ministers of the member states as well as by delegates from the EU Commission and the Central Bank. "The Ecofin council is an opportunity to prepare the European Council of 15th and 16th October explains a note from the French Presidency , when the ministers should submit to the heads of state and governments their analyses and proposals to tackle the financial crisis, the rise in oil prices and the economic slowdown". Ecofin will take stock of the results of the meetings of ministers and governors, held in Nice on 12th and 13th September, and the debate opened by the G4 meeting in Paris last week-end. In addition, Ecofin will address the problem of the executives’ salaries in Europe and the financial and tax harmonisation plan, which is under way. "Finally, the Presidency will take stock of the state of the preparation of the yearly meetings of the World Monetary Fund and the World Bank, so as to be able to tackle the methods for the international funding of the fight against climate change".
