Brussels, 14/03/2013 (Agence Europe) - A high degree of consensus emerged from a meeting of European Liberal leaders on Thursday 14 March on economic policies for Europe, said the president of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) Group, Sir Graham Watson. He said that no faction within the Liberals is challenging the need for financial discipline and structural reforms to continue.
Euro Commissioner Olli Rehn agreed with this, seeing the European Summit as an “opportunity to show citizens that Europe is serious about growth and jobs”. He said Europe's leaders would probably fall in behind the European Commission's anti-crisis plan, which has often been criticised for focusing too much on austerity. He said the strategy was, in fact, based as much on healthy public finance and sustainable growth as it was on austerity, and the economic recovery would have to be backed by robust public finance. On the budget mix, Rehn called for an “optimal balance between expenditure cuts and tax increases” because some countries had chosen the latter and thus undermined economic growth. He gave the example of Ireland as “concrete evidence that consistant fiscal consolidation (...) structural reform does pay off”. The Commissioner pointed out that the European Investment Bank's capital had been increased by €10 billion, which would increase its lending capacity by €60 billion thanks to the leverage effect. (EL/transl.fl)