EU to present bonus givebacks to G20

BRUSSELS, Sept. 17 (UPI) -- European Union leaders agreed Thursday on a plan to seek the return or cancellation of bonuses for bank executives when their institutions perform poorly.

The group agreed to present the plan to the Group of 20 Summit next week in Pittsburgh, The Times of London reported.

"The bonus bubble bursts tonight," said Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, who holds the rotating EU presidency. "We particularly want to focus on the link between performance and compensation."

French President Nicolas Sarkozy pushed for a cap on bonuses. But he agreed to back off in exchange for language to cut bonuses "in case of a negative development in the bank's performance."

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the G20 should become a governing institution for international finance.

"I believe we will be able to agree on the structure of how the bonuses should be examined in the future," Brown said. "I am confident that at Pittsburgh there is a common will to achieve action on something that has angered the populations of almost every country. There is no going back to the bonuses of the past."