EU marks 62nd birthday in Florence with 'turning point'
Photo © Boguslaw Mazur - Fotolia
(FLORENCE) - The European Union marked its 62nd birthday at a conference of key EU officials hosted by Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti amid a renewed eurozone crises over Greek debt on Wednesday.
"Europe is reaching an important turning point," Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn told the meeting in the wake of elections in France and Greece that reflected deep unease over painful budget cuts.
"We need to stay the course on economic stabilisation and at the same time strengthen actions for sustainable growth and job creation," he told the audience in the picturesque 13th century Palazzo Vecchio in Florence.
"Economic growth and jobs are dominating the minds of Europeans," he said.
The French and Greek elections last weekend underlined uncertainty over whether European Union governments should pursue the course of austerity demanded by Germany or whether there is a potential for more flexibility on budget rules.
"There are questions, concern, sometimes anger, a division between the elites, the leaders and the people," Internal Market and Services Commissioner Michel Barnier told AFP in an interview on the sidelines of the meeting.
"It's hard to find a good equilibrium between measures that are credible for the financial markets and measures that the people can bear," he said.
Barnier called for a wide-ranging "citizens' conference" in which European politicians and trade union leaders could hear the views of ordinary citizens.
But he also insisted on the need for Europe to stay the course on fiscal consolidation, adding: "What we call austerity is simply good management after sometimes 30 years of laxity of political leaders of the left and the right.
"The Germans have this culture of budget stability that should inspire all other countries. But we can't just do that. We have to pursue this course remembering our economic ideal -- a social market economy," he said.
He also insisted on the "historic" importance of Franco-German ties at the heart of Europe. "France and Germany have to continue this dialogue. It is more and more necessary but it is less and less sufficient," he said.
Monti, a former European commissioner who came to power in November 2011 after his predecessor Silvio Berlusconi was kicked out by parliament, has pressed for greater inclusion of Italy at the heart of EU decision-making.
French president-elect Francois Hollande has called for a renegotiation of the "fiscal compact" agreed to by the whole of the European Union except Britain and the Czech Republic, to include more measures to promote growth.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has insisted that the long fought-over pact is not up for renegotiation, ahead of informal talks between EU leaders set for May 23 and a decisive European summit scheduled for June 28-29.
As with so many of such gatherings over the past two years, the May meeting could yet end up being dominated by problems in Greece -- where a majority of voters cast their ballots in the general election for anti-austerity parties.
Political leaders in Athens have been unable to form a governing coalition able to enact cuts that are a condition for new loans from the European Union and International Monetary Fund to save the country from bankruptcy.
The left-wing Syriza party, which came second in the elections, began negotiations on Wednesday on forming a new government and has vowed to reject all austerity measures imposed under the EU-IMF loan deal if it comes to power.
May 9 is celebrated as "Europe Day" -- the anniversary of a famous declaration by then French foreign minister Robert Schuman in 1950 which was seen as laying the foundations of what is now the European Union.