The FINANCIAL — According to EU business, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil on December 22 vowed to work together to counter the effects of the world crisis by promoting trade.
The pledge was made as Sarkozy embarked on a two-day official visit to Rio de Janeiro under two hats: as the outgoing president of the European Union keen to bolster ties with Latin America's biggest economy, and as a French leader looking to seal major defense deals with Brasilia.
Sarkozy was accompanied by a platoon of ministers and French industrialists — and by his glamorous wife, Carla Bruni, who was to celebrate her 41st birthday Tuesday in the middle of a series of visits to Franco-Brazilian charities in Rio.
The trip was Sarkozy's final act as EU president. From January that six-month rotating position goes to the Czech Republic.
After attending an EU-Brazil summit Monday with Lula and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, Sarkozy told reporters the two sides "will work all out" to prepare their positions for an April 2 summit by the G20 group of advanced and developing nations in London.
"Europe and Brazil must speak with the same voice to obtain fundamental changes in the global financial system and in world governance," he said.
"We have decided, with President Lula, to push for things to change, for them to change profoundly. We have decided to align our positions and to arrive in London with a joint vision on the future role of the IMF (International Monetary Fund), the system of financial institution oversight," he said.
A previous G20 summit held in Washington last month saw developed and developing countries agree to work to revive the flagging world economy in the teeth of the accelerating economic crisis.
It also established Brazil's ambition to see developing countries be given an equal say in determining international financial policy alongside the wealthier nations making up the G7 bloc.
The French leader said greater supervision was needed for banks in the wake of the crisis, the euro should be elevated to the same status as the dollar, and that measures to tackle the turbulence should follow Europe's model.
"We have decided to join efforts to lay the groundwork for a more balanced monetary system based on the major world currencies," Sarkozy said.
"We also want to discuss and lay the groundwork for an economic coordination putting in place a system of global recovery in line with what Europe has done."
Lula, speaking at a Franco-Brazilian business conference, argued for a successful conclusion of the moribund Doha Round of trade talks next year as a way of countering the crisis's effects.
"We can't give up on liberalizing trade," he said. "The EU and Brazil have to work together."
Although the crisis has dampened interest, Europeans continue to look to Brazil as one of the countries most likely to weather the turbulence.
Latin America's biggest economy is forecast to have growth of 2.1 percent next year, down from 5.9 percent this year, according to the United Nations.
As her husband spoke politics and diplomacy, Carla Bruni extended her charity work by visiting a breast milk "bank" in a Rio institute that provides sustenance to impoverished Brazilian children through a national network.
The ex-model, smiling in a dark blue dress with white spots and a violet handbag, learned how the facility sterilizes the breast milk to ensure it is free from HIV, and how its model has been copied in other parts of Latin America and in Spain.
On Tuesday, when President Sarkozy was to sign several defense contracts with Lula, she was to spend her birthday touring a Rio slum where a Franco-Brazilian charity works to try to lift children out of poverty.
She was also to attend a fashion show put on by an association promoting the use of recyclable material, such as bamboo and fibres made from plastic bottles.
Following their official duties, Sarkozy and his wife will stay on in Brazil for a private summer vacation to December 29.
They will be spending it with the Brazilian family of Bruni, whose biological Italian father has been living in the country for many years.
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