Brussels, 18/10/2012 (Agence Europe) - After the summits of liberal leaders on Thursday 18 October 2012 ahead of the opening of the European Summit later that day, Euro Commissioner Olli Rehn said the liberals were optimistic that we might be at a turning-point in the crisis due to progress in recent months, which should continue as long as the momentum is kept up. Rehn said the European Union had come up with a raft of effective tools for boosting economic governance and had to keep up the good work to deepen economic and monetary union (EMU).
His views were shared by the head of the ALDE party at the European Parliament, Guy Verhofstadt, who said consensus might be found by the end of the year on a common eurozone bank supervisory system, one of the main planks of Banking Union and, indeed, EMU.
Rehn said the current negotiations over the idea of German finance minister Wolfgang Schaüble to give the Euro Commissioner greater powers to intervene in national budgets were a step in the right direction (see EUROPE 10711), adding that the ideas were a key aspect of the talks on strengthening EMU.
Graham Watson, chair of the European Party of Liberals and Democrats (ELDR), said that despite the problems facing the eurozone, it was good to think that a new member might soon join the zone. Rehn explained earlier that there were quite good prospects of Latvia joining the eurozone in 2014. (EL/transl.fl)