The European Council, which groups heads of state or government of the 27 European Union member states (and, technically, the president of the European Commission), began yesterday and continues today in Brussels, under French presidency. The French –or possibly the Council's permanent staff– put together a nifty facebook of the participants.

European Council meetings tend to be photo ops. Usually, leaders announce what has already been agreed. Sometimes they have nothing substantive to announce, in which case the press can still report on the gathering of 27 European leaders, which is newsworthy in itself.

Tumult in the financial markets set the stage for this European Council meeting. French President Sarkozy did some preparatory work over the weekend with key players, Chancellor Merkel and Prime Minister Brown.

There seems to be some friendly competition between Brown and Sarkozy for top-of-the-marquee billing, but European leaders have in a short time built up considerable momentum for a global meeting to agree on a new architecture to regulate global financial markets.

At a minimum, European leaders demand intergovernmental cooperation, with a coordinated regulatory scheme and, as the case may be, coordinated assistance to troubled institutions. But Brown and Sarkozy, seconded by Merkel, also have been clamoring for a new Bretton Woods (the 1944 conference led by FDR that led to the IMF, the World Bank, and the postwar economic regulatory framework in general).

I'm an interested observer, but find this news has been dramatically under-reported in American media. From my vantage point in Europe, the three points that make the strongest impression on me are:
  1. On the subject of financial market regulation, European leaders want change. They want a lot of change, real soon. They've shown initiative and have acquired momentum towards action.
  2. European leaders are calling a conference, probably in New York in one month's time, to set up a new regulatory architecture. There's no shortage of ambition: more than incremental change-makers, they see themselves in a position comparable to FDR's in 1944. 
  3. The United States will have a role in this, but not top billing. Initiative is coming from Europe, where leaders are projecting confidence (in the ability of government to straighten out problems) and responsibility (in a willingness to take on problems in a muscular, energetic way). Talk from Europe schedules serious-making just after the American Presiential election, during a sort of interregnum. This is probably a coincidence of the calendar but allows European leaders to appear center-stage.