Brown gets Europe pulling together

Few people would begrudge Gordon Brown a peak at the world’s newspaper headlines after Le Monde hailed him a “European superhero” and the Washington Post declared him the saviour of the world financial system.

By boldly rescuing threatened banks by part-nationalising them, providing guarantees for inter-bank lending and injecting extra liquidity, Gordon produced a plan that was rapidly followed by the eurozone countries (whose meeting he was invited to, despite not yet being a member), and then by others around the world.

This has at least stemmed the current tsunami of financial sector troubles, but it is the combined action with other EU governments which promises to produce a long-term plan which can avert a reoccurence of the reckless gambling that left so many banks on the brink of collapse.

In today’s press conference with Jose Manuel Barroso, ahead of the EU summit, Gordon made clear that coordination and cooperation among EU governments and regulators is now imperitive. An early warning system and better regulation of transnational banks and companies are also set to be introduced. (It is also reassuring to see Barroso confirm that despite the current economic climate EU countries would maintain their ambitious plans to combat climate change by reducing carbon emissions.)

Of course there is much still to do, with the rise in unemployment a warning there are still difficult times ahead but, thanks in no small part to Gordon Brown, there is at least now a concerted effort to get EU governments pulling in the same direction.