Brussels to issue crisis recovery plan next month
We need to swim together or else we will sink together - Barroso
The European Commission will be issuing a recovery plan next month to help member states cope with the global financial crisis.
Commission President Josè Manuel Barroso told a press conference in Brussels yesterday following an extraordinary meeting that this would be a comprehensive plan focused on short-term actions.
"We need to swim together or else we will sink together," Mr Barroso warned.
"The plan will include measures to help families and households across Europe. We must keep unemployment to the absolute minimum and support those who have lost their jobs.
"We will review how we can reinforce the effectiveness of the Globalisation Adjustment Fund and encourage member states to re-programme funds under the European Social Fund to support measures to quickly get unemployed people back into work," he added.
Mr Barroso said member states and the Commission had to cooperate more than ever to establish how the EU could build on the progress of the Lisbon Strategy to help people, in particular the unemployed, to start up new businesses quickly and cheaply.
Flagging the idea of strengthening supranational financial institutions, Mr Barroso said the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) could both receive more capital.
He said the Commission will continue to apply EU rules rapidly and with the maximum flexibility allowed by the treaties.
On the Stability and Growth Pact, which establishes the rules governing member states' fiscal policy, Mr Barroso said there must be scope for fiscal and budgetary policy to be anti-cyclical in a downturn in order to maintain demand and protect jobs.
"This option is a key feature of the pact and there is a strong case for member states, that have the necessary room for manoeuvre, to consider such measures," he said.
Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said the pact, which is designed to integrate European economies more deeply, is still the appropriate policy framework for the EU, even as it weathered the crisis.