Brussels, 25/01/2011 (Agence Europe) - The current economic and monetary crisis may serve as a “lever” to hasten European integration and have the merit of “reminding” member states' leaders that they have to have the “political will” to move towards more European solutions, stated Commission President José Manuel Barroso, speaking at the second Brussels Think Tank Dialogue 2011, held in Brussels on Tuesday 25 January, in cooperation with Agence EUROPE. “Today, it is not only federalists and integrationists who ask for economic governance. The markets are doing it every day”, he said. Confronted with the need for urgent collective action to save the euro and the European economy, “we are, in fact, in a very dynamic moment” for European integration, the pressure exerted every day by the markets being “a way to remind leaders that we have to go together”, he explained. “It is important to use the crisis as a lever to make more European integration”, he said. “A lot has already been done” over the last two years (putting in place a European financial supervision architecture, the creation of the European Financial Stability Fund - EFSF, the launch of the “European semester”, agreement on limited amendment of the Treaty to create a permanent crisis management mechanism, and more) “but momentum has to be kept up and reforms have to be continued”, he insisted. He hoped that the six Commission proposals on strengthening economic governance would be approved by heads of state and government before the end of the Hungarian Presidency in June. “That would be a real quantum leap”, he said.
Role of think tanks. Highlighting the important role they play in the discussion on European integration, Barroso suggested that the think tanks focus on “serious, rigorous analyses” and go deeper into European issues without engaging on “propaganda”. One of the tasks of the think tanks should be to explain to national leaders and European citizens “what we have to lose without more Europe”. “Public opinion in the countries must understand what they gain with European integration but also what they risk losing without Europe”, he concluded. (H.B./transl.rt)