In These New Times

“The Americans and the British had all the time they needed to accept the Eurogroup’s proposals for better regulation of the financial markets,” he said.
“That is something they specifically didn’t want, and so now it is not appropriate for them to pretend to lead others,” Juncker told parliament.

Interactive Investor

17th November, 2008

Britain and the United States should not portray themselves as shaping Europe’s response to the financial crisis having in the past rejected regulatory reform, Eurogroup Chairman Jean-Claude Juncker said.
“Two years ago at the G7 meeting under the German presidency of the G7 we were fairly blunt in calling for more elaborate rules for the financial markets,” Juncker, who chairs meetings of euro zone finance ministers, told the European Parliament.
“Those who refused to play ball just a little while ago cannot now pretend to be the trailblazers dictating Europe’s reaction,” he told the assembly during a debate on Monday.
“The Americans and the British had all the time they needed to accept the Eurogroup’s proposals for better regulation of the financial markets,” he said.
“That is something they specifically didn’t want, and so now it is not appropriate for them to pretend to lead others,” Juncker told parliament.
Juncker did not spell out what he was referring to. However some British media focused strongly on the role played by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in shaping the outcome of the G20 leaders’ meeting on the crisis at the weekend.
His comments are the latest in a series of signs of divergence between the so-called “light-touch” regulatory approach traditionally favoured by British and American policy-makers and the more interventionist approached associated with the continental European model.
Britain’s bank bailout plan, with capital injections of public money and guarantees for debt instruments issued by banks, was hailed by euro zone heads of state and government in October as a potential model, putting the spotlight on Brown.
British bank Northern Rock was also one of the first European casualties of the crisis triggered by the collapse of the U.S. sub-prime mortgage market which triggered a global credit crunch.