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Verhofstadt Rubbished V. Rompuy’s Claims, the Economic Crisis was Over

Leader of Belgian party ALDE,  Guy Verhofstadt has rubbished claims that the economic crisis is “over”.  Speaking in Strasbourg on Wednesday, the Belgian deputy ridiculed recent suggestions by his compatriot, European council president Herman Van Rompuy that Europe’s ailing economy was now over the worst. Verhofstadt’s remarks came on the day MEPs debated how to combat the economic crisis, especially in the eurozone, along with commission president José Manuel Barroso.

In a pre-plenary briefing for journalists, Verhofstadt rubbished recent remarks by Van Rompuy and also the ECB president Mario Draghi that the economic crisis was “to all an intents and purposes over”.

Verhofstadt, a former prime minister of Belgium, said, “Both of them said a month ago that there was, therefore, no need to take any further measures or undertake further reforms.

“Events of the last few days have shown that this is far too optimistic a view.”

He added, “The economic crisis is not over, far from it.”

“This is very clear from the current situation in Spain and Italy.”

He said that EU-wide measures designed to tackle the crisis had “bought some time” but were “not the solution”.

He once again called for public debt “neutralisation” with the introduction of a “redemption fund”, saying, “This is the only way to restore market confidence in the eurozone.”

Verhofstadt was also highly critical of the decision to give the two biggest political parties in Greece an additional €29m in funding ahead of next month’s Greek parliamentary elections.

He has written to Barroso asking for an explanation and said, “The Greek people are being asked to endure great austerity measures while at the same time the two political parties responsible for the crisis in the country receive millions in public funding.

“Barroso has said that the EU has ‘nothing to do with this’ but that is not true.”

source: The Parliament

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