2009 G20 London summit a force for good in the medium term." Leaders of the member countries began to prepare for the London Summit months before the effective date, notably with two official meetings dedicated to that preparation, one held in Berlin, Germany, on 22 February 2009 for European leaders, and another in Horsham, Sussex, United Kingdom, on 14 March 2009 for Finance Ministers. Leaders of the four European Union member countries of the G20, the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Italy along with the two largest European non-members, Spain and the Netherlands, met in Berlin on 22 February 2009 to prepare for the
2009 G20 Pittsburgh summit the "Freedom Conference 2009," stressing conservative grassroots solutions and free-market approaches. At around 10:15 a.m. on Wednesday, September 23, Greenpeace activists hung a banner, warning of the dangers of increased CO2 emissions, from the deck of the West End Bridge facing downtown Pittsburgh over the Ohio River. While traffic was held up for a period, all eight activists were placed under arrest after surrendering peacefully. On Thursday, September 24, the Pittsburgh G20 Resistance Project held a march and a day of direct action at Arsenal Park in the city's Lawrenceville neighborhood. Police fired pepper spray at a crowd of an