EU Finance Ministers agreed on a common response to tackle the twin economic threats of rising oil prices and globalisation at a weekend meeting in Manchester.
The informal ECOFIN meeting also arrived at a common position on the challenges of third world development and the financing of terrorist activities. This followed Friday's meeting of the Eurogroup, a subset of members representing the euro area.
Presiding over the meeting, UK Chancellor Gordon Brown put particular emphasis on the economic challenge arising from oil price increases.
"We are determined that with the appropriate policy response, the economic consequences of higher oil prices can be limited," said Mr Brown.
ECOFIN had agreed on several long-term measures to deal with the oil situation, including gathering better data on oil reserves and stocks and improving the efficiency of energy use, he said.
An ECOFIN statement on the current economic situation and on oil called on OPEC to recognise that a common interest existed between oil producing nations and consumers in ensuring adequate supplies.
Mr Brown said that the EU would improve dialogue with oil producing nations and encourage increased investment to avoid future bottlenecks in supply.
"We are calling on oil producing countries to use the oil revenues from price increases to invest in production and refining capacity," said Mr Brown. ECOFIN also arrived at an agreement against the use of any "distortionary" tax measures to try and influence the prices of oil.
However, some divisions emerged at the meeting after a call on Friday by Luxembourg's Prime Minister Mr Jean-Claude Juncker, speaking on behalf of the Eurogroup, for the US to improve its record on energy.
UK Chancellor Gordon Brown excluded the reference to the US when summing up the ECOFIN position.
"We are calling on all countries to look at developing alternative energy strategies and to improve the efficiency of their energy usage," he said.
The ECOFIN statement also welcomed the proposal of the last G8 meeting to cancel the debts of so-called Heavily Indebted Poor Countries and called on the IMF to implement the G8 plan at its forthcoming annual meeting next week.
Addressing the issue of globalisation, Mr Brown said that ECOFIN was agreed that Europe could only meet long-term challenges by achieving greater flexibility as well as a single market in areas such as services.
