The Missing Dimension: How European Financial Reforms Ignore Developing Countries and Sustainability

Abstract

On the eve of the G20 Summit in Cannes, SOMO has analysed the European Union’s financial reform process, agreed on by the G20, in its new report The missing dimension. How European financial reforms ignore developing countries and sustainability. SOMO concludes that the EU’s financial reforms have been not only much too slow and too weak – aggravating the debt and bank problems in the Eurozone. What’s more, the EU’s reforms are lacking in vision with respect to what the function of the financial sector should be, and for whom. This report highlights the fact that the various financial reforms of the European Union (EU) have ignored the impact on developing countries as well as the participation by developing country supervisors, although European banks operate in these countries. Additionally, the current lack of reform of food derivative markets continues to influence food prices for the poor.

Keywords: G20 Summit in Cannes, European Union’s financial reform process, The missing dimension, bank problems in the Eurozone, financial sector, lack of reform of food derivative markets, food prices