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12/20/08

The Guardian: EU ministers to address economic crisis in Paris - by Anna Willard

For the complete report from the guardian.co.uk click on this link

EU ministers to address economic crisis in Paris - by Anna Willard

European Union finance ministers meet at France's request on Thursday to take stock of measures to avert further financial crises of the kind that has sunk much of the world into recession. No-shows by key players risk limiting the clout of a meeting that takes place under the shadow of more trouble on Wall Street -- this time an alleged $50-billion fraud that may have gone undetected by U.S. regulators for as much as a decade. France, which hands the presidency of the 27-member EU over to the Czech Republic at the end of the month, wants the Paris gathering to assess where the EU stands on broader international pledges to improve regulation of high finance.

Disgraced Wall Street investment manager Bernard Madoff, accused of orchestrating a $50 billion fraud, was put under house arrest on Wednesday as French bank BNP Paris became the latest European bank to reveal that it got burned in the affair. "It is clearly an example of what we must absolutely avoid in the future," Lagarde said, adding that Madoff operated "at the margins of a system which was not properly monitored and for which the regulation was not appropriate".

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