Brussels, 20/06/2005 (Agence Europe) - The economic operators want the forthcoming UK Presidency of the Council of the EU to show genuine leadership to overcome the latent crisis in the Union and to take concrete initiatives for an economic upturn. This is the message sent out by representatives of Eurochambers, further to a meeting with the Minister for European Affairs, Douglas Alexander, and Minister of Estate for Trade, Ian Pearson, in London on 14 and 15 June. Eurochambers and the British ministers agreed that breathing new life into the economy is a priority for Europe. The President of Eurochambers, Christoph Leitl, acknowledged that the United Kingdom finds itself in a delicate situation: "the UK Presidency starts at a highly critical moment, which calls for the greatest of prudence (...). We expect (...) it to do all it can to boost the economy and job creation, and to mobilise and include all actors in order to achieve these objectives". In order to do this, Mr Leitl also called on the ECB "to do much more". "Depressing forecast follows depressing forecast, but for the last two years, the ECB has stuck rigidly to price stability, has set interest rates inflexibly at 2% and continues to hang back and observe the situation. The European business world is running out of steam. We need an encouraging sign- but not once it's too late. We need a reduction in rates", he pleaded.