Obama Lays Out Goals For G20

President Obama pressed European leaders on Friday to build on measures they put in place this week to quell a debt crisis that threatened the health of the world’s economy.

In an op-ed piece for the Financial Times of London, Obama praised Euro nations for making “important progress on a strategy to restore confidence in European financial markets, laying a critical foundation on which to build.”

But, he warned, “this strategy be implemented successfully – including building a credible firewall that prevents the crisis from spreading, strengthening European banks, charting a sustainable path for Greece and tackling the structural issues at the heart of the current crisis.”

The plan agreed to early yesterday morning involves slashing Greece’s debt by 50% and increasing the euro zone’s bailout fund — known as the European Financial Stability Facility. Some are warning, however, that despite the deal, Europe is not quite out of the woods yet.

The U.S. President will get a chance to discuss the plan first-hand with leaders when he travels to Cannes next week to participate in the annual G20 summit.

Obama also wrote that his bill aimed at creating two million U.S. jobs shows that he is leading the effort to bolster economic conditions around the world.

“The single most effective thing we can do to get the global economy growing faster is to get the US economy growing faster,” he said. “That’s why my highest priority is putting Americans back to work.”