EU, ECB working up eurozone 'master plan': report

(BERLIN) - The heads of four key European institutions are hammering out a "master plan" to lead the eurozone out of its crippling crisis, a German Sunday newspaper reported.

European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi, European Union president Herman Van Rompuy, EU Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso and Eurogroup chairman Jean-Claude Juncker were tasked last month with working up a reforms roadmap, Welt am Sonntag said.

The plan is to be presented at an EU summit in late June, the report said.

Under global pressure to put an end to the turmoil rocking financial markets and creating deep economic uncertainty, the leaders want to point the way toward a lasting solution, an unnamed high-ranking EU official told the newspaper.

"Around the world -- in America and Asia -- we are asked, 'Where do you want to go?'" the official said. "After two years of crisis, it is finally time to provide an answer."

The proposals being considered would include European institutions having more power over national budgets; a European supervisory body for the banking sector with new powers; harmonised fiscal, tax, foreign and security policies; and reform of social welfare programmes.

The report said some of the changes could initially apply just to the 17-nation eurozone and not the 27-member European Union as a whole.

Barroso pleaded Wednesday for a tighter eurozone union to avoid "financial disintegration," including "a banking union with integrated financial supervision and single deposit guarantee scheme."