The EU 'was effective in response to financial crisis'

Davos: The president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, was in Davos to attend the World Economic Forum, where he aired his views on global supervision and regulation for banks and other financial players.

CNN's Richard Quest spoke to him on the sidelines of the forum.

RICHARD QUEST: The president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso says that Europe has been effective in putting forward a response to the economic crisis ... Why did the gas dispute between Ukraine and Russia take so long to put right, because if you remember the on again, off again dispute took weeks of cold shoulders in Europe.

JOSE MANUEL BARROSO: First of all it was a further ... of Russia and Ukraine. They had a problem. They were not speaking - they were not even speaking with each other. In fact, we were helping them to solve a problem.

It's true there was some collateral damage to some Europe countries but in fact it was Russia and Ukraine that were not honouring their commitments to European consumers and in fact it was us that helped them solve the problem. I personally believe that without our intervention there still would be a problem between Russia and Ukraine.

Were you disappointed it took so long to resolve?

Of course I was disappointed because it was the first time ever that those contracts were not being respected with some European countries.

What does it say about Europe's energy dependence and the fragility of that dependence on countries like Russia? It can't be good. It says that we have to work more for energy solidarity and energy security and in fact the European Commission, we have put forward 10 concrete proposals to improve the situation and to create and establish a real energy policy for Europe and I believe now the minds are focused and we are coming to concrete results.

Let's talk about the financial crisis. The Obama stimulus package has been - looks like it will be passed in some shape or form and does Europe now need to do more? Do you call on European governments to increase their own stimulus packages?

First of all we welcome the Obama plan. We see a lot of convergence between the American and European plan and considering our interdependence on trade and investments it is indeed good news. We have European plan, the first thing now that we have to do is implement it.

In the space of less than a month, President Obama has been elected - taken office, and the plan is before Congress and it's about to be passed. In Europe you're still talking about implementing it. Where is the urgency, Mr President? The European Union has taken the decision already. But the Americans have not yet taken the decision, honestly. Having said that let's be completely honest about this. Americans are one country. We are 27 countries.

I think when you consider the unprecedented crisis we have that the European Union was pretty much effective in response to the crisis.

In fact it was our initiative, it was us that went to America - still with President Bush in office - to propose to him about the global summit, the G-20 summit and now we are going in London on April 2 and the European Union is leading the effort to respond to the global crisis. Do you get the feeling that the G-20 summit process has slowed down or is that a reasonable thing to do bearing in mind the new administration?

No, it's because the Americans were having a new administration. From our point of view, we will keep the momentum.

We very much want that process to succeed. The next meeting will take place in London.

We are preparing it and of course together with our American friends and partners I believe we have to keep the momentum.

Let's talk about the Russian Prime Minister and the Chinese premier. They both basically bashed Western capitalism in their speeches.

What we have to see is how to work properly with a market economy and of course there were real problems and there is irresponsibility in some sectors of the financial activity.

Having said this, the alternative is not the state-controlled system or coming back to old models of the past, by the way, without free societies and without free economies.

One thing we have to understand is we are all together in this and we are all in the same boat and we have to find global solutions and the solution has to be open economies but of course with appropriate regulation.