Spain still trying to get an invite to the November G-20 Summit

Zapatero due to meet Durao Barroso today to try and get a place in G-20 summit

Today the Spanish president, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, is meeting the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Durao Barroso in order to put forward Spain’s case to be included in the next G20 summit in Washington on 15th November which will discuss changes to the international financial system. Zapatero and Barroso will also be looking at ways that EU member states can adopt new measures in a coordinated effort to deal with the global financial crisis.

Zapatero and Durao Barroso are meeting in the Palacio de la Moncloa.in Madrid. Spain already has the support of the European parliament for its case to be present at the G20 summit meeting due to its economic and political weight within the international community. The European Commissioner for Foreign Relations, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, has already sent a message of support to Zapatero.

Other important European leaders such as the British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, and the President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, have also publicly demonstrated their support for Spain to be present at the summit. And last week Zapatero took advantage of his trip to the Latin American Summit in El Salvador last week to get the governments of Brasil and Mexico, among others, to express their support for Spain to be present at next month's economic summit.

Political commentators in Spain believe that George Bush's decision not to invite Spain to the meeting is further proof of the cold shoulder approach Bush has shown towards Spain ever since Zapatero fulfilled his pre-electoral promise to withdraw Spanish troops from Iraq in 2004, something for which both Bush (and Rodriguez Zapatero's predecessor Aznar, one of Bush's most staunch supporters during invasion of Iraq) have never forgiven the Spanish president..

Zapatero stated last week during his visit to El Salvador that coordinated action is the only way to guarantee its effectiveness which is why EU leaders are holding a special meeting on 7^th November to discuss their views before the G20 summit meeting in Washington later this month.