Obama Downplays Quarrel Between EU and U.S.

American president, Barack Obama, downplayed reports on a rift between the United States (U.S.) and the larger members of the EU in the run-up to the G20 summit in London. The U.S. is heading to this meeting with a demand for more budgetary efforts to re-launch the economy, while France and Germany see more good in stricter rules for the financial world.

Obama made those remarks in an interview with the British paper, Financial Times, on the eve of his first visit to Europe since he became president in January. Obama travels first to London for the G20 summit and then flies to Strasbourg for the 60th anniversary of NATO. After that, a U.S.-Europe summit in Prague and a two-day visit to Turkey.

The president is optimistic that the meeting in London will result in a framework for a solution to the worldwide crisis. “The leaders know they must send out a strong message of unity.”

The president says he has agreed with Angela Merkel, chancellor of Germany, and Nicolas Sarkozy, president of France, that there is a need for more fiscal stimulus and better legislation. “The press has always made this an ‘or’-story, while we’ve always said it is an ‘and’-story. We need stimulus and regulation. We must tackle current problems and prevent such a crisis from ever happening again.”

“Concerning the stimulus, there will be an agreement that the G20-nations will do everything necessary to stimulate trade and growth.”

Obama does admit in the interview that he is experiencing resistance from tax payers back home to more government spending, which may make it difficult for him to sell the idea of more stimulus measures.

“In all countries there is an understandable tension between the need to steer the economy back on the right track and the fact that the measures to do that are very expensive and that tax payers display a healthy skepticism about the spending of their money. Especially because there is a perception that part of the money is not going to them, but to others who they think helped cause the crisis.”

Obama also calls on the G20 to undertake “serious steps” to free banks of toxic assets on their balance sheets.

In a draft of G20 resolutions which leaked last Sunday, world leaders remain vague about extra stimulus. The text does promise to combat protectionism and to get world trade flowing again.