Sky News Interview during European Council

16 Oct 2008

Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, spoke to Sky News on 16 October while he attended the European Council in Brussels.

Speaker:	Foreign Secretary, David Miliband
Location:	European Council

EU Council building, Brussels, October 2008

Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, spoke to Sky News on 16 October 2008 while he attended the European Council in Brussels.

Read the transcript

Eamonn Holmes (EH): The economic crisis top of the agenda for European leaders who are meeting in Brussels today. We can now go there live and speak to the Foreign Secretary, David Miliband.

And Mr Miliband good morning to you.

David Miliband (DM): Good morning Eamonn, how are you?

EH: I’m very well unlike the economy and the markets unfortunately and despite what you politicians seem to do, Foreign Secretary, those markets just can’t stop falling. Is it now all beyond your control do you think?

DM: No I think that Governments always have a responsibility to try to steer the economy. The measures that the UK Government took under Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling’s leadership has I think made a significant difference to our banking sector, but obviously we’re still part of a global economy that is looking at a major downturn.

The rise in the oil price earlier this year and other factors mean that it is going to be a very difficult economic period and that’s why we need to look at this at a European and global level, not just at a national level. That’s what this summit is all about, showing that countries around Europe can come together and make sure that they take the necessary action together to help mitigate this downturn.

EH: So what is the deal, or the agreement that you’re trying to get today?

DM: There are two aspects to the agreement. First of all to seal the deal on the measures in respect of the banking sector. Obviously we took measures last week in respect of taking a stake in significant banks and also guaranteeing inter bank lending. That is now being followed right around Europe, not just in the Euro group, but for all twenty seven members of the European Union.

But secondly and most importantly the Prime Minister set out an agenda of how we try to avoid these problems recurring and that’s why he’s calling not just for an international meeting, people don’t just want meetings, they want action. He’s set out five key areas where we’ve got to change the international regulatory system to make sure that these problems don’t happen again.

EH: Yeah, it looks to many that Britain’s certainly taking that action and that Britain is being very proactive, not only towards Europe, but towards the rest of the world. Is that the way you see it?

DM: I think that’s fair. I mean the action that Gordon and Alistair Darling took undoubtedly set a global trend and others have followed. They identified very clearly the problems that existed in the banking system and the problems especially of lending between banks as well as the capital status of individual banks. And that’s now being followed not just in, in Europe, but around, but in America as well most significantly. I was speaking to the Chinese Foreign Minister earlier this week and he was talking about what Gordon and Alistair had done. So there’s no question there’s a global following for what we’ve done nationally.

But the critical point is that we change the international systems as well. Gordon has been going on about this for many years now, that there are international capital markets, there’s an international economy, but the international regulatory systems aren’t yet up to the job. I think there are now some followers for that agenda as well, critically to make sure there’s proper transparency in the markets, proper responsibility exercised by banks and proper coordination between banks and regulators around the world.

I think that that argument for a global agreement is now in prospect and I think that that’s a significant step forward that hopefully will be sealed this morning in the discussions that are going to take place.

EH: Okay and you think it’s fair that it’s seen that, that you’re leading the way in, in all of this and you should get the credit for that, but what about the French? We’re hearing that there may be some resentment amongst them that the British Government, the Prime Minister in particular is getting so much credit for all of this?

DM: I haven’t picked that up to be honest. And in the end if you’re one of the people who lost their job in the last three months you’re not going to be that impressed as to who gets the credit for which action to help improve the system in the future. You’ve lost your job and you want to make sure that the Government in your country’s on your side. This isn’t about politicians arguing about who gets the credit. The situation is far too serious for that.

Actually you’ve got a French Government led by President Sarkozy working very closely with Gordon Brown taking their responsibilities extremely seriously and so this isn’t about politicians squabbling, this is actually about a real world crisis to use the word that you’ve used and I think is appropriate in these circumstances and addressing the real issues that people face.

EH: Real issues and you’ve highlighted them there. You’re also going to talk about European carbon emission targets. Do you think the appetite for that recedes when there are real issues like the ones you are discussing?

DM: Well there’s a bit of buyers’ remorse around among European Governments who signed up to a climate change deal in 2007 and are now worried about it. But the point we keep making is that the challenges that we face in the real economy stem in significant part from a rise in the oil price and the oil price went up ‘cause of excess demand. Why? Because too many places around the world are overly dependent on oil based supplies of energy, fuel and transport supplies and so it’s vital that we see that the economic problems we face, the climate problems we face and the energy problems are brought together in the demand that we find alternatives to oil based methods of energy and transport fuel.

I think it’s very important therefore that Europe does stick to its guns on increasing the amount of renewables, improving energy efficiency, using nuclear power where appropriate, and so that climate change agenda I think is more necessary than every. It’s linked to our economy, not least because there are so many new jobs in the green economy.

EH: Well Foreign Secretary good luck with your efforts. I hope the conference goes well and thank you for your time this morning. That’s David Miliband …