European Union (EU) leaders hammered out common positions on Thursday for the upcoming summit of the Group of 20 (G20) major economies, calling for continuous efforts of fiscal stimulus and global curbs on bankers' bonuses.

Stimuls to stay

"Efforts must be maintained until recovery is secured," EU leaders said in a conclusion document after an informal summit in Brussels on Thursday, which is designed to coordinate EU position for next week's G20 summit in Pittsburgh, the United States.

Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, whose country holds the EU rotating presidency, told a press conference after the summit that the current global economic situation "remains uncertain and risks remain" despite positive signs of recovery.

But he warned the huge stimulus would push up public deficits for governments, so an exit strategy to phase out those measures must be designed now.

"Exit strategies need to be designed now and implemented in a coordinated manner as soon as recovery takes hold, taking into account the specific situations of individual countries," said the conclusion document.

EU leaders also urged strengthened global macroeconomic coordination to address global imbalances, saying that "such coordination should be based on a central role for the IMF (International Monetary Fund)."

They called on the G20 summit to reiterate its stance against protectionism and continue to press for progress in trade liberalization, including with regard to a global, ambitious and balanced conclusion of the Doha Round of global trade talks in 2010.

On employment, EU leaders said that laying the basis for a sustainable recovery and sound public finances is the best way to ensure a rapid return to employment, prodding to speed up structural reform.

They stressed that to avoid permanent exclusion from the labor market, particular attention must be paid to maintaining employment, creating new jobs and promoting mobility; upgrading skills and matching labor market needs; and increasing access to employment.

Bonus bubblr burst

As to financial reforms, EU leaders called for global rules to limit bankers' bonuses, a key demand to be presented at the G20 summit.

"On the financial market and bonuses, we have agreed to say enough is enough. We need to move away from the current culture of compensation based on short-term performance," Reinfeldt said.

"The bonus bubble burst tonight," he said. "The G20 plays a crucial role to globally regulate financial markets, not to see a return of the crisis."

In the conclusion document, EU leaders said the G20 should commit to agreeing to binding rules for financial institutions on bonuses to their top managers, backed up by the threat of sanctions at the national level.

They said the rules should enhance corporate governance to ensure appropriate board oversight of compensation and risk, and strengthen transparency and disclosure requirements.

In particular, bankers' bonuses should be set at an appropriate level made dependent on the performances of the financial institutions they managed.

Part of bankers' bonuses must be deferred over time for an appropriate period and could be canceled in case of a negative development in the bank's performance, EU leaders said.

Stock options must be prevented from being exercised for an appropriate period of time, they said.

EU leaders also wanted the G20 summit to "explore ways to limit" bonuses to a certain proportion of either total pay or the bank's revenues or profits.

Climate financing unclear

Besides economic recovery and financial reforms, the global talks on a climate deal were also expected to feature high on the agenda of the G20 summit in Pittsburgh.

World governments are scheduled to conclude a deal in Copenhagen, Denmark in December to create a new framework for further international action on climate change, following on from the Kyoto Protocol's first commitment period which ends in 2012.

Reinfeldt warned that with only 80 days left before the Copenhagen meeting, the negotiations have gone too slow. One of the sticky issues is how much developed countries can pay to help poor nations combat global warming.

"The developing world needs our help to pay the bill, a bill that we helped to create through our emissions. We have today therefore started to look at the course," Reinfeldt said.

EU leaders agreed to an estimate by the European Commission that the total net incremental cost of mitigation and adaptation in developing countries could amount to about 100 billion euros (US$147 billion) annually by 2020.

The Commission proposed last week that the EU could contribute some 2 to 15 billion euros (US$2.9 to US$22 billion) a year by 2020 to help poor nations, but the amount was criticized by environmental groups as being too small.

"To make progress, we need to talk figures. That is why we have put on the table the proposal. Our message to the developing world is that if they are serious about the challenge of cutting emissions, we will be there to help," said European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.

EU leaders did not make clear whether they had accepted the EU's contribution in total as proposed by the Commission, but pressed other countries, including emerging economies, also to pay.

"All countries, except the least developed, should contribute to financing the fight against climate change in developing countries with finance allocated according to need so that developing countries receive more than they are contributing," they said in the conclusion document.

(Xinhua News Agency September 18, 2009)