German Chancellor Angela Merkel has again said that protectionism in the face of the global economic and financial downturn will backfire if governments persist around the world in circling the fences around their own industries and interests. “We will master the crisis together,” she told parliament ahead of a European Union economic meeting in Brussels. Merkel said cooperation was the best way to combat the crisis and restore confidence in the markets.

One of the goals of the two-day EU meeting was to forge a common position on financial market regulation that can be presented to the Group of 20 summit of industrialised and emerging economies in London on April 2. Merkel cautioned against governments introducing new emergency economic packages before the ones already in place had begun to kick in - something some other European capitals have been putting pressure on Berlin over.

“The current measures have to take effect first,” she said. “A bidding war of promises will not calm the situation.” Merkel said Germany had pumped more than 80 billion Euro into the EU’s 400 billion Euro economic recovery programme, making it one of the biggest contributors. The EU Commission, she said, could do more by temporarily easing restrictions on subsidies, speeding up decision-making and showing greater flexibility over the stability and growth pact that monitors members’ conduct on fiscal policy.