16 January 2012

Press remarks by European Council President, Herman Van Rompuy, following meeting with Mario Monti

"Let me stress from the outset that with President Monti there is a very large convergence of views on where Europe should focus to overcome this financial crisis and return to a path of growth. The goal of stability will not be reached overnight, nor with a quick fix. We have had 13 Summits in the past two years, and we have adopted major reforms in our policy framework to deal with the challenges. To overcome this crisis, sustained committed effort will be required into the future.

"Market players or rating agencies sometimes consider our response as incomplete or insufficient. Yet real progress has been made in reshaping the euro area, in order to build on its fundamentals, which are on average sound. In this respect I should commend the extraordinary work President Monti – and Italy – is carrying out. When he visited me in Brussels last November, he explained his ambitious plan of reforming Italy to reach fiscal consolidation and to promote economic growth.

"I welcome the rapid realisation of this plan: an impressive financial package was adopted by the Parliament before the end of 2011; today, he described to me a new package of measures to promote growth, starting with a liberalisation of the economy, which he intends to adopt in the coming days before presenting it to the Parliament. Their adoption is crucial for market confidence.

"I am convinced we will achieve financial stability through fiscal discipline in all our Member States, more economic coordination and stronger economic governance. But we also have to set our economies back on a path of sustainable growth. For the short term, we discussed the fiscal compact treaty and the crisis mechanisms. There are a number of things I can assert today:

• we will agree on the new fiscal compact treaty at the end of this month and we will sign it early March;
• our crisis mechanisms are being strengthened. The European Stability Mechanism (ESM) will enter into force in July 2012, earlier than planned. We will also assess the adequacy of the EFSF/ESM’s size without delay. We are working with our international partners to increase IMF resources, for which euro area members have already announced a contribution of €150 billion. Swift implementation of these commitments is crucial, since these instruments are about trust and confidence building towards the markets.

In the meantime, we should re-focus on growth and job creation. Growth-friendly consolidation and job-friendly growth are what we need! Growth should be enhanced by strengthening supply and by stimulating demand. We must urgently put in place an anti-recession strategy, mobilising means and efforts at the Union level and – most importantly - at Member States level.

"I must admit I found some inspiration in President Monti's report of May 2010 on "A new strategy for the single market". Professor Monti argued at that time that the full potential of the European Single Market had not yet been delivered. He identified the missing links preventing the market from acting as a powerful engine for growth and delivering full benefits to consumers. He called for a fresh look at how the market and the social dimensions of an integrated European economy can be mutually strengthened.

"On the supply side, the Single Market is indeed our main asset. We should fully use its potential, across all sectors: products, services, energy, digital economy and therefore deliver on the Commission proposals by the end of this year."

Full speech

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