Brussels, 15/07/2011 (Agence Europe) - In a leading article by Jacques Delors (former president of the European Commission), Felipe Gonzalez (former Spanish prime minister), Romano Prodi (former president of the European Commission and former Italian prime minister), Etienne Davignon (former vice-president of the European Commission) and Antonio Vitorino (former European commissioner) in the Saturday 16 July edition of French newspaper Le Monde, a clear vision for the euro is called for so that it comes through the current crisis in a stronger position than it went in.
The authors explain that for several days now the prospects of a lasting solution to the Greek situation seem to have been vanishing into thin air, the public debt of Portugal, Italy and Spain are coming under ever greater attack from the markets, and the public and private negotiators seeking a solution have not yet managed to find one.
They say there is only one reason for this, which is the lack of any clear vision of the challenges by the politicians who are using their credit and credibility to get out of the immediate problems.
The senior statesmen said the euro can and will survive the crisis and will even be strengthened by it. They say countries must guarantee individuals' savings but financial institutions have taken risks and must carry their share of the burden without undermining the stability of the system.
The politicians say that everything that can be done to prevent Greece from defaulting on its debt must be done and they urge countries and financial institutions to find solutions that will ease the financial burden on the citizens of countries issuing bonds. They recommend, for example, taking action to this end like using EU funds to buy back and cancel some of the bonds that have been the most severely written down, to the benefit of the countries affected by this loss of value.
They say a clear vision for the euro also requires the introduction of sustainable regulation of the financial system at EU level because the crisis has only thus far enabled the first stage of such regulation of banks and the financial markets to be achieved. Europe must be given the means to succeed in the long-term and help ensure better global regulation of the financial world, they add.
The statesmen say that public deficits have to be reduced but this has to be properly managed over a reasonable period of time. They explain that if leading European Union politicians, the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund introduce the above-mentioned simple ideas then solutions can be found. (L.C./transl.fl)