After a meeting held between UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, U.S. Treasury Secretary, John Snow, and European Commissioner, Charlie McCreevy, the European Union and the United States issued a joint statement highlighting areas for co-operation.

Immediate topics for discussion include: promoting convergence of accounting standards; implementation and enforcement of financial market reforms; and, cooperation among auditing supervisors.

In the longer term, they will discuss: competition among trading venues; corporate governance practices; and, promotion of deeper and wider capital markets.

“Given their responsibilities for the world’s largest financial markets, the United States and EU authorities need to work to assure that conflicts of laws and regulations are managed without creating tensions in financial markets,” they said. “At the same time, European and U.S. regulatory authorities need to work closely together in international organizations, cooperating, where possible, to find common solutions that benefit global financial markets.”

Commenting on the joint EU-U.S. statement on financial markets, Brown said, “Both the U.S. and the EU stand to gain considerable economic benefit from more efficient flows of capital and financial services between our two continents. So I welcome the joint statement that has been agreed under the UK Presidency of the EU. I hope that this Dialogue continues to bear fruit and that the priorities outlined in today’s statement can help guide discussion, setting out the most important areas we need to look at if we are to create the conditions for a truly transatlantic financial market.”

Snow added, “I appreciate Chancellor Brown’s initiative to draw attention to the important work being undertaken by U.S. and EU authorities on financial markets. This work parallels our joint US-EU efforts to reinvigorate financial services negotiations in the Doha Round. Both will contribute to more robust global economic growth and a more stable international financial system.”

And, McCreevy said, “Strengthening our bilateral cooperation and problem solving efforts will further reduce regulatory friction and free up market forces. It is better regulation in action. The Commission will therefore continue working with our U.S. counterparts in an informal way to tackle the issues we have just identified and make sure that new ones are nipped in the bud before any difficulties arise.”

The European Commission and the United States established the Financial Markets Regulatory Dialogue in 2002 in recognition of the fact that developments in one market or jurisdiction can have implications for others. The Dialogue is led by the European Commission and U.S. Treasury, joined by staff from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and U.S. Federal Reserve Board, as well as representatives of other supervisory bodies.