EU leaders face decisive moment
Twenty-seven European Union leaders will gather in Brussels tomorrow to come up with a comprehensive solution to the euro-zone crisis.
A senior official of the European Commission said the major leaders of the EU’s economic giants – German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Nicolas Sarkozy of France – would be the key people to push for solutions and revive the growth of the union after the recession.
The main agenda of the summit will be the fiscal-union policy, and it is expected that the European Central Bank will widen its role to strengthen surveillance of each member state.
"The summit will create a concrete resolution for euro-zone countries. It should come up with a comprehensive solution and lead to action soon," the source said.
The measures are expected to enable the countries that use the euro currency cope with economic slowdown and survive the financial crunch following the crisis that began in 2009 as Greece’s debt reached ?300 billion euros (Bt12.4 trillion).
Decisions by the EU leaders during the summit will be aimed at ensuring the growth of the global economy next year after the World Bank forecast slower growth due to slowdowns in Europe and the United States. If the EU is successful in coming up with a clear resolution, it will bring global trade back on track. It will also ensure that Thailand’s exports will continue to grow next year, as the EU is one of the major export markets, accounting for 9.5 per cent of the country’s total export volumes.
Early this week, Merkel and Sarkozy met in Paris and called for amendment to the Treaties of the European Union that would finalise centralised oversight of national budgets and automatic sanctions against countries that violate stringent rules on deficits.
Sarkozy said the EU would like to make sure that the imbalances that led to the situation in the euro zone today cannot happen again.
So far, to cope with the euro-zone crunch, the EU has come up with six legislative proposals: clearer rules; more focus on debt; debt reduction; a framework to address macroeconomic imbalance; minimum requirements for national fiscal frameworks; and stronger enforcement of rules.
