Ivan Camilleri, Brussels
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.
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Lawrence Fenech
Dec 21st 2011, 08:48
Why dosen't the EU sacrifice some of its highly paid salaries like the rest of the nations who are all under austerity programs, austerity came out of EU but not in. Monti gave an example to everybody without being forced to do so.
Lawrence Martinelli
Oct 30th 2008, 17:58
I. Galea Esq.
I am afraid me & you are a bit backwards & mentally retarded.
What would we have done without the "Commitees" having decided the
shapes & sizes of bananas we must eat ?
Paté fois (if I have spelt it wrong is simply due to the fact I cannot write French)
can ONLY be French. - Salami can ONLY be italian - SauerKraut can ONLY be German
& so on. Bet my last penny next in line will be Malta.....stop using dot for decimals &
coma for thousands.....horrible old-fashioned Anglo-Saxon system.
As Malta is officially bi-lingual will they decide if pastizzi can still be called so / or converted to cheese cake pastiizzi ? Me & you know these things are not a joke....the future of Europe
is in the hands of the Euro-Crats who are much , much more intellingent than people like us......after all.....I started life as a Galley Boy !
l Galea
Oct 30th 2008, 15:30
Lawrence Martinelli
"I still don't know what purpose they serve."
Please add milking the taxpayers with jobs for the boys apart from wasting time and money.
They fit the classic definition of Committees, wasting hours to make minutes.
Lawrence Martinelli
Oct 30th 2008, 15:05
@ M/S . I.Galea & Carmen Caruana.
Change what ? - Give back what sovreingty ?
I have seen Bruxelles at work for donkies years.
I have seen the European Parliament at work for years.
I still don't know what purpose they serve.
The only thing that to me (an ignorant almost illiterate person)
at times does tick is the Court of Justice in Luxembourg.
Of course they DO serve a puropse....Jobs for the boyos !
l Galea
Oct 30th 2008, 14:24
It's time to give back sovereignty to the member countries and shut Brussels institutions once and for all
carmen caruana
Oct 30th 2008, 11:24
It's time to change the system .........