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President Bush Meets with President Sarkozy of France and President Barroso
of the European Commission
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For Immediate Release October 18, 2008

President Bush Meets with President Sarkozy of France and President Barroso
of the European Commission Camp David

˙ /news/releases/2008/10/20081018-1.wm.v.html ˙˙Presidential Remarks
˙˙Audio ˙˙Photos

˙˙˙˙˙ Statement of the United States, France and the Presidency of the
European Commission ˙˙˙˙˙ In Focus: Economy

4:27 P.M. EDT

PRESIDENT BUSH: I want to welcome two friends to Camp David: President
Sarkozy of France, who is representing the European Union, and President
Barroso of the European Commission. We're really glad you're here.

I'm looking forward to an important discussion of the global financial
crisis, which is having an impact on hardworking people all across the
world. The first task is to stabilize the financial markets in our own
countries. Given that the world has never been more interconnected, it is
essential that we work together because we're in this crisis together.

That's why over the past few weeks the United States and our partners in
Europe have cooperated closely to address this challenge. Earlier this
month, the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, and four other
central banks carried out a coordinated interest rate cut. Last weekend, G7
finance ministers and central bank governors approved a plan of action to
stabilize our markets, rebuild confidence in our financial systems, and
restore the flow of credit to our businesses and our consumers.

As part of this action plan, leaders in Europe have taken measures to
provide financial institutions with additional capital, provide credit
guarantees, and increase deposit insurance.

In the United States, we're taking systematic and aggressive steps to help
banks rebuild capital and resume lending. For example, the Treasury
Department will directly inject capital into banks by purchasing equity
shares. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has temporarily
guaranteed most new debt issued by insured banks, which will make it easier
for these banks to borrow needed money from each other. The Federal Reserve
is launching a new program to provide support for commercial paper -- a key
source of short-term financing for America's businesses and financial
institutions.

These are historic measures, suited to our system, which I believe will
work. These measures will take time. We're dealing with a significant
problem. But the American people and our friends around the world can know
that we have confidence that the measures will work.

In addition, G8 leaders issued a statement this week expressing support for
an international meeting on the financial crisis. I've been in touch with
Prime Minister Aso of Japan, who happens to be the President of the G8.
We've been consulting with the Japanese. I look forward to hosting this
meeting in the near future. Both developed and developing nations will be
represented. And together, we will work to strengthen and modernize our
nations' financial systems -- so we can help ensure that this crisis
doesn't happen again.

For this meeting to be a success, we must welcome good ideas from around
the world. So I'm looking forward to hearing from President Sarkozy and
President Barroso this afternoon, and from other leaders in the days ahead.
And of course I'll share my ideas, as well.

As we make the regulatory and institutional changes necessary to avoid a
repeat of this crisis, it is essential that we preserve the foundations of
democratic capitalism -- a commitment to free markets, free enterprise, and
free trade. We must resist the dangerous temptation of economic
isolationism and continue the policies of open markets that have lifted
standards of living and helped millions of people escape poverty around the
world.

This is a trying time for all our nations. I am confident that we will
overcome the challenges we face. With determination and focused action, we
will weather this crisis, return our economies to the path of prosperity
and long-term growth.

Mr. President.

PRESIDENT SARKOZY: (As translated.) President, my dear George, thank you
for having invited us. We -- and by that I mean I, myself, and President
Barroso -- have a mandate from the 27 members of the European Union to come
here and say first and foremost that this is a worldwide crisis and,
therefore, we must find a worldwide solution.

Each region of the world, each part of the world, to begin with the United
States and then the European countries and now Asia, are trying to find an
answer to the crisis, but this answer will be all the more effective
insofar as we find it together, we speak with one and the same voice, and
we build together the capitalism of the future.

I say things that I deeply believe here. This may be a great opportunity if
we do not fall back into the hateful practices of the past -- practices
that have led us exactly where we are right now. The President of the
United States is right in saying that protectionism and closing one's
borders is a catastrophe. He is right to say that it would be wrong,
catastrophic, to challenge the foundations of market economics. But we
cannot continue along the same lines because the same problems will trigger
the same disasters. We can only go forward with a sense of responsibility
and that those who have made the mistakes bear the brunt of their errors
and shoulder that burden of responsibility.

And we have come here on behalf of Europe to say to this great American
nation that we wish to build a better world -- the world of the 21st
century; that we wish to work hand in glove in building this world with
you. But we must not waste any time. We want a summit -- nations of the G8
-- as has been stated, and no doubt the G5 countries, so that together with
Asian states and others, we find a worldwide solution. This must be done
forthwith, as President Bush has said, possibly even before the end of the
month of November.

And we believe that insofar as the crisis began in New York, then the
global solution must be found to this crisis in New York -- all of us
putting our heads together, we must look on the fundamental rules that will
apply to this 21st century of ours. We live in the 21st century, but we
continue to apply 20th century rules. Hedge funds cannot continue operating
as they have in the past; tax havens, neither; financial institutions that
are under no supervisory control -- this is no longer acceptable, this is
no longer possible. Together, among friends, among allies, we must be able
to say to the world that we are determined to find a solution together, to
find answers together.

George, my friend, together with Jos‚ Manuel, myself, we speak with one and
the same voice. We have brought European nations together; that was no easy
task. There were British traditions, French traditions, German traditions,
Latin traditions -- but we found a solution. And why were we able to do so?
Quite simply because this is such a serious crisis, it is such a systemic
crisis.

And it is on that note that I wish to end. Why must we make haste? We must
make haste because we must stabilize the marketplace as swiftly as possible
by coming up with answers. Once calm has been restored, we must avoid at
all costs that those who have led us to where we are today should be
allowed to do so once again. We believe in the capacity and the ability of
the American people to come up with the answers the world is waiting for,
is expecting, because this sort of capitalism is a betrayal of the sort of
capitalism we believe in.

And that is the reason why, with President Barroso, we have come to make
Europe's voice heard. And next week, we will be chairing the Europe-Asia
summit and get across the same message.

In today's world, this world of ours, we cannot leave anyone out -- anyone
out of the global worldwide solution that we need to this crisis. Thank
you, Mr. President, for having invited us. Thank you for using your term of
office right up until the very end to help the world find the answers to a
crisis that we must contain. We must not give way to fatalism.

PRESIDENT BARROSO: Mr. President, George, thank you for receiving us here
at Camp David. This is a global financial crisis that requires global
solutions. Europe is taking decisive action. Our 27 member states and
European Union institutions have worked and have agreed this week on a
common framework for directions to deal with the financial crisis. This
includes measures to address liquidity in interbank markets,
recapitalization of banks, and guaranteeing households' deposits.
Coordination and consistency of countries' decisions is the way to secure
an efficient response to these unprecedented challenges. For these
unprecedented challenges, we need an unprecedented level of global
coordination.

The European Union and United States account for a very significant share
of world finance. Around 77 percent of world also finance is from the
United States and from Europe. The Europeans and Americans must now join
efforts and extend our cooperation to major developed and emerging
countries. We must act swiftly to respond to the urgency, but we must also
look forward at the medium and long term.

The international financial system -- its basic principles and regulations
and its institutions need reform. We need a new global financial order.
Together, the European Union and the U.S., we can make a difference
together. We should show the way towards an international response to the
financial crisis and contribute to global growth.

This is why Europe wants the calling of an international summit as soon as
possible to launch an effective world response to world crisis. It's
precisely because if you live in open societies and open economies -- open
societies need rules, the rule of law, the rule of democracy. Markets also
need rules; if possibly, commonly agreed rules. And as President Sarkozy
just said, we'll be this week also in Beijing for the ASEM summit where we
hope to engage also with our partners around this very line.

Addressing the financial crisis must go hand in hand with providing our
enterprises and citizens the conditions for creating wealth and jobs. I
really believe we have a very strong responsibility. Thank you very much
for receiving us.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Thank you, Jos‚.

END 4:38 P.M. EDT
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