|
|
On Monday, President Barroso participated in a meeting in Berlin with German Chancellor Merkel, French President Hollande and business leaders of the European Round Table of Industrialists on European competitiveness. The topics of the meeting included how Europe can generate growth and jobs for its citizens.
In his statement ahead of the meeting, President Barroso stressed a growth-friendly fiscal consolidation and the importance of addressing the social consequences of the crisis. "Growth indeed needs to come from increased competitiveness and productivity, not from debt creation. We have seen in the past that artificial growth fuelled by artificial debt, either public or private, is not a solution", he said.
President Barroso stressed that competitiveness is not an end in itself. "It is essential to our economic success, for growth and jobs. It is also about meeting the challenges our European model of society is facing. It is about defending our influence in the world", he said.
The President reminded about the progress that is being made in a number of countries which are improving their current account balances and public deficits. "But the crisis persists as we can see from the dire growth prospects and record levels in youth unemployment and also the most recent development concerning Cyprus."
In his statement, President Barroso said he was deeply convinced that Europe has the willingness to do more and better. "It has the brains to excel on a global scale. It has a model of society of which we can be proud and which is worth preserving and modernising. And it has also at the same time the modesty to accept that many things can be corrected and that we can go forward to complete many of our work."