[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 44, Number 42 (Monday, October 27, 2008)]
[Pages 1364-1366]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks Prior to a Meeting With European Union Leaders at Camp David, 
Maryland

October 18, 2008

    President Bush. I want to welcome two friends to Camp David: 
President Sarkozy of France, who is representing the European Union, and 
President Barroso of the European Commission. We're really glad you're 
here.
    I'm looking forward to an important discussion of the global 
financial crisis, which is having an impact on hard-working people all 
across the world. The first task is to stabilize the financial markets 
in our own countries. Given that the world has never been more 
interconnected, it is essential that we work together, because we're in 
this crisis together.
    That's why over the past few weeks, the United States and our 
partners in Europe have cooperated closely to address this challenge. 
Earlier this month, the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, and 
four other central banks carried out a coordinated interest rate cut. 
Last weekend, G-7 finance ministers and central bank governors approved 
a plan of action to stabilize our markets, rebuild confidence in our 
financial systems, and restore the flow of credit to our businesses and 
our consumers.
    As part of this action plan, leaders in Europe have taken measures 
to provide financial institutions with additional capital, provide 
credit guarantees, and increase deposit insurance.
    In the United States, we're taking systematic and aggressive steps 
to help banks rebuild capital and resume lending. For example, the 
Treasury Department will directly inject capital into banks by 
purchasing equity shares. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has 
temporarily guaranteed most new debt issued by insured banks, which will 
make it easier for these banks to borrow needed money from each other. 
The Federal Reserve is launching a new program to provide support for 
commercial paper, a key source of short-term financing for America's 
businesses and financial institutions.
    These are historic measures, suited to our system, which I believe 
will work. These measures will take time. We're dealing with a 
significant problem. But the American people and our friends around the 
world can know that we have confidence that the measures will work.
    In addition, G-8 leaders issued a statement this week expressing 
support for an international meeting on the financial crisis. I've been 
in touch with Prime Minister Aso of Japan, who happens to be the 
President of the G-8, and we've been consulting with the Japanese. I 
look forward to hosting this meeting in the near future. Both developed 
and developing nations will be represented. And together we will work to 
strengthen and modernize our nations' financial systems, so we can help 
ensure that this crisis doesn't happen again.
    For this meeting to be a success, we must welcome good ideas from 
around the world. So I'm looking forward to hearing from President 
Sarkozy and President Barroso this afternoon and from other leaders in 
the days ahead. And of course, I'll share my ideas as well.

[[Page 1365]]

    As we make the regulatory and institutional changes necessary to 
avoid a repeat of this crisis, it is essential that we preserve the 
foundations of democratic capitalism, a commitment to free markets, free 
enterprise, and free trade. We must resist the dangerous temptation of 
economic isolationism and continue the policies of open markets that 
have lifted standards of living and helped millions of people escape 
poverty around the world.
    This is a trying time for all our nations. I am confident that we 
will overcome the challenges we face. With determination and focused 
action, we will weather this crisis, return our economies to the path of 
prosperity and long-term growth.
    Mr. President.
    President Sarkozy. President, my dear George, thank you for having 
invited us. We--and by that I mean I, myself, and President Barroso--
have a mandate from the 27 members of the European Union to come here 
and say first and foremost that this is a worldwide crisis, and 
therefore, we must find a worldwide solution.
    Each region of the world, each part of the world--to begin with the 
United States and then the European countries and now Asia--are trying 
to find an answer to the crisis. But this answer will be all the more 
effective insofar as we find it together, we speak with one and the same 
voice, and we build together the capitalism of the future.
    I say things that I deeply believe here. This may be a great 
opportunity if we do not fall back into the hateful practices of the 
past, practices that have led us exactly where we are right now. The 
President of the United States is right in saying that protectionism and 
closing one's borders is a catastrophe. He is right to say that it would 
be wrong, catastrophic, to challenge the foundations of market 
economics. But we cannot continue along the same lines, because the same 
problems will trigger the same disasters. We can only go forward with a 
sense of responsibility, and that those who have made the mistakes bear 
the brunt of their errors and shoulder that burden of responsibility.
    And we have come here on behalf of Europe to say to this great 
American Nation that we wish to build a better world, the world of the 
21st century; that we wish to work hand in glove in building this world 
with you. But we must not waste any time. We want a summit--the nations 
of the G-8--as has been stated, and no doubt the G-5 countries, so that 
together with Asian states and others, we find a worldwide solution. 
This must be done forthwith, as President Bush has said, possibly even 
before the end of the month of November.
    And we believe that insofar as the crisis began in New York, then 
the global solution must be found to this crisis in New York. All of us 
putting our heads together, we must look on the fundamental rules that 
will apply to this 21st century of ours. We live in the 21st century, 
but we continue to apply 20th century rules. Hedge funds cannot continue 
operating as they have in the past; tax havens, neither. Financial 
institutions that are under no supervisory control--this is no longer 
acceptable; this is no longer possible. Together among friends, among 
allies, we must be able to say to the world that we are determined to 
find a solution together, to find answers together.
    George, my friend, together with Jose Manuel, myself, we speak with 
one and the same voice. We have brought European nations together. That 
was no easy task. There were British traditions, French traditions, 
German traditions, Latin traditions, but we found a solution. And why 
were we able to do so? Quite simply because this is such a serious 
crisis; it is such a systemic crisis.
    And it is on that note that I wish to end. Why must we make haste? 
We must make haste because we must stabilize the marketplace as swiftly 
as possible by coming up with answers. Once calm has been restored, we 
must avoid at all costs that those who have led us to where we are today 
should be allowed to do so once again. We believe in the capacity and 
the ability of the American people to come up with the answers the world 
is waiting for, is expecting, because this sort of capitalism is a 
betrayal of the sort of capitalism we believe in.
    And that is the reason why, with President Barroso, we have come to 
make Europe's voice heard. And next week, we will be chairing the 
Europe-Asia summit and get across the same message.

[[Page 1366]]

    In today's world, this world of ours, we cannot leave anyone out, 
anyone out of the global worldwide solution that we need to this crisis. 
Thank you, Mr. President, for having invited us. Thank you for using 
your term of office right up until the very end to help the world find 
the answers to a crisis that we must contain. We must not give way to 
fatalism.
    President Durao Barroso. Mr. President, George, thank you for 
receiving us here at Camp David. This is a global financial crisis that 
requires global solutions. Europe is taking decisive action. Our 27 
member states and European Union institutions have worked and have 
agreed this week on a common framework for directions to deal with the 
financial crisis. This includes measures to address liquidity in 
interbank markets, recapitalization of banks, and guaranteeing 
households' deposits. Coordination and consistency of countries' 
decisions is the way to secure an efficient response to these 
unprecedented challenges. For these unprecedented challenges, we need an 
unprecedented level of global coordination.
    European Union and United States account for a very significant 
share of world finance. Around 77 percent of world wholesale finance is 
from the United States and from Europe. We Europeans and Americans must 
now join efforts and extend our cooperation to major developed and 
emerging countries. We must act swiftly to respond to the urgency, but 
we must also look forward at the medium and long term.
    The international financial system--its basic principles and 
regulations and its institutions need reform. We need a new global 
financial order. Together, the European Union and the U.S., we can make 
a difference. Together we should show the way towards an international 
response to the financial crisis and contribute to global growth.
    This is why Europe wants the calling of an international summit as 
soon as possible to launch an effective world response to world crisis. 
It's precisely because if you live in open societies and open 
economies--open societies need rules, the rule of law, the rule of 
democracy. Markets also need rules; if possibly, commonly agreed rules. 
And as President Sarkozy just said, we'll be this week also in Beijing 
for the ASEM summit, where we hope to engage also with our partners 
around this very line.

    Addressing the financial crisis must go hand in hand with providing 
our enterprises and citizens the conditions for creating wealth and 
jobs. I really believe we have a very strong responsibility. Thank you 
very much for receiving us.

    President Bush. Thank you, Jose.

Note: The President spoke at 4:27 p.m. Participating in the meeting were 
President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, in his capacity as President of the 
European Council; and President Jose Manuel Durao Barroso of the 
European Commission. President Sarkozy spoke in French, and his remarks 
were translated by an interpreter.