By Mark Smulian | 5 September 2013

The European Union will use this week’s G20 summit to press for investment in growth and job creation and action on financial regulation and tax avoidance, its president Herman Van Rompuy has said.

G20 leaders are meeting in St Petersburg today and tomorrow, though their formal agenda is expected to be overshadowed by the crisis in Syria.

Van Rompuy said the EU was in better economic shape than it had been a year ago.

‘Our strategy for combating the crisis is bearing fruit, but we will relentlessly continue our efforts as risks and challenges remain,’ he said.

‘The economic crisis has further stressed the need for all to pay their fair share of taxes. In St Petersburg, the European Union will seek to advance in the fight against tax evasion and ensure the widest possible backing for automatic sharing of tax information.’

He said G20 leaders should adopt an ambitious ‘St Petersburg Action Plan’, designed to enhance strong, balanced and sustainable growth.

On financial regulatory reform, the EU will call on its G20 partners to commit to ‘timely and effective implementation of the agreed measures to fill in the remaining blanks in financial regulation’.

It would also press for action on shadow banking and money market funds, to ensure funds can better withstand redemption pressure in stressed market conditions by enhancing their liquidity profile and stability.

The EU said it would push for the automatic exchange of information on tax evasion to become the global standard and would support any efforts to see this measure swiftly implemented.

Van Rompuy also said the EU would strongly support the OECD's action plan to fight corporate tax avoidance worldwide, which the summit is expected to endorse.

The summit will also discuss trade, where the EU wants to see ‘a strong message against protectionism’.

Use of protectionist measures has continued to grow among G20 members and there was an absence of efforts to dismantle trade-restrictive measures, Van Rompuy warned.