EU leaders to focus on growth at G20 Summit

BRUSSELS - Heads of the European Commission and European Council on Friday urged European leaders to focus on enhancing growth and creating jobs at the forthcoming Group of 20 (G20) Summit at Los Cabos, Mexico, in mid-June.

"Despite global recovery is on track, risks to global growth remain. At the Los Cabos Summit, we should deliver a strong and credible message on growth," European Commission President Barroso and European Council President Van Rompuy said in a joint letter sent to the 27 EU members' leaders.

"Growth and employment should be the key focus of the Los Cabos summit. Leaders should adopt the Los Cabos Action Plan for Growth and Jobs, building on the agreement in Cannes, and based on a balanced assessment of risks to the global economy," they said.

Continuing to strengthen the International Financial Architecture, making substantial further progress on financial market reform, and tackling food security and promoting development would also be the "priority areas" of the European leaders to be present at the Summit, said the letter.

Concerning the situation in the euro area, the two leaders said, "We will reaffirm our commitment to safeguard financial stability in the euro area and its integrity. We will also make clear that we want Greece to remain in the euro area while respecting its commitments."

EU leaders would also be appealing to other G20 countries to "fight against protectionism and to further strengthen the multilateral trading system," they said, adding that the recent surge in protectionism is a major concern and the G20 should strengthen the existing monitoring mechanism.