Verhofstadt: Action is long over due, but still not complete

Euro area Summit: Action is long over due, but still not complete

Following yesterday's Euro area Summit conclusions, ALDE Leader Guy Verhofstadt said:

"Yesterday EU Heads of government and state did what was necessary. Only a reduction of the interest rates and extended repayment periods for Greece, Portugal and Ireland could mitigate the crisis and foster stability in the eurozone. It was the right decision.  We also welcome the decision to make the EFSF more flexible, especially by empowering it to "preventively" act and to buy in the secondary market. It is a step toward its "de facto" conversion into a real European Monetary Fund. It was long over due."

"If an improvement to the current system must be acknowledged, a solution for the long term is still missing. They have not delivered the much needed fiscal and economic union. We also regret that Member States did not again show the courage to take the longer term step to meet the inevitable, namely to create a Eurobond market." he added

Referring to the pending agreement between the Council and the EP on economic governance mentioned in the Summit conclusions, Verhofstadt added: "We hope that the call for reaching an agreement in the specific case of the voting rules in the preventive arm of the Stability and Growth Pact means supporting the Parliament's position."