ECB's Draghi urges EU leaders to adopt deeper reforms
Mario Draghi
(BRUSSELS) - European Central Bank head Mario Draghi urged EU leaders on Thursday to embrace even deeper reforms and pull their weight in turning around the lacklustre European economy.
Draghi was speaking after talking to the EU's 28 leaders on the economy at a summit overshadowed by crucial talks with Turkey on solving the migrant talks.
"I made clear that... monetary policy has been really the only policy driving the recovery in the last few years, it cannot address some basic structural weaknesses of the (19-nation) eurozone economy," Draghi told reporters.
"For that, you need structural reforms mostly driven to raise the level of demand, public investments and lower taxes and even more importantly one needs clarity of the future of our European monetary union," he said.
The Italian central banker spoke a week after the ECB launched unprecedented measures to fight low inflation and boost the economy, including slashing already record low interest rates and an expansion of a controversial cash stimulus programme.
Draghi said he hoped his policies were "not a good excuse for us not to act".
Eurozone leaders have pledged to pursue policies to strengthen the single currency bloc after the damage caused by the debt crisis but progress so far is mixed and the economy continues to bump along.
"The economy is recovering albeit with a lower momentum... but risks remain on the downside and some of the risks are beginning to intensify," Draghi said.