Brussels, 10/01/2012 (Agence Europe) - A new EU programme to encourage growth is crucial to help the continent get out of the sovereign debt crisis, according to the Liberal party in Europe, which defends the Community method tooth and nail. The Liberals call for an urgent, ambitious action plan for growth and jobs in Europe, which they want the 30 January 2012 European summit to commission, explains a statement issued by leading European Liberals in London on Monday 9 January at a meeting chaired by MEP Graham Watson. According to the Liberals, Europe is at a dangerous crossroads because it cannot solve its problems simply by applying austerity measures, but needs to deal with one of the deeper sources of the crisis, namely lack of international competitiveness.
The Liberals set out a number of areas such an action plan should cover, namely introducing a full single market in high technology by 2015; reforming EU rules, including social rules and labour law, to encourage structural reforms in the member states; concluding by the end of the year all the ongoing free trade talks around the world, which would lead to an extra €60 billion-worth of trade, and opening negotiations with the United States and Japan; greater encouragement for smarter legislation; and for member states and EU institutions to focus their limited resources on boosting innovation and competitiveness.
If no changes are made, then Europe will face a long “Japanese winter” with zero growth, industrial stagnation and demographic decline, like the situation seen in Japan when the housing and banking bubbles burst in the 1990s, explained the leader of the Liberals at the European Parliament, Belgium's Guy Verhofstadt, setting out his 2012 wish list on Tuesday 10 January. His comments echoed the statements by France and Germany about action needed at the highest level to encourage growth and spending cuts at the same time (see EUROPE 10527).
Euro crisis. The Liberals, in whose midst are Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip and EU Commissioner for the Euro Olli Rehn, recognise that the international treaty on stronger economic unity is a step in the direction of greater budget coordination, along with more discipline and solidarity, but strongly believe that this should not be done at the expense of division and disunity in the EU. They want the new 26-country budget treaty to respect the Community method. Attending the meeting in London, British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, said that he believed the treaty should later form part of the full European Treaty. Claiming not to have won sufficient guarantees about the integrity of the single market, British Prime Minister David Cameron refused in December 2011 a modification of the European treaties to strengthen budgetary discipline, obliging the other 26 member states to favour an intergovernmental treaty (see EUROPE 10513). (MB/transl.fl)