Van Rompuy, voorzitter Europese Raad, positief over vooruitzichten Europese economie (en)

EUROPEAN COUNCILDavos, 28 January 2011 PCE 019/11 THE PRESIDENT Herman Van Rompuy i, President of the European Council, Keynote speech in Davos "Solid facts and political determination"

My main message is a politically IN-correct one: I am positive about the outlook for the European economy.

It may surprise some of you who read the international press. However, solid facts offer more ground for hope than catchy headlines. Let me share some of those facts.

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  In the Eurozone, growth in 2010 has been quite good (around 1.7%) and the forecasts for 2011 and 2012 are encouraging. GDP growth in the euro area is expected to reach 1.5% this year and to accelerate to close to 2% in 2012. The GDP growth of 2010 and 2011 in Belgium is even above the 2 percent, showing the underlying strength of the economy.
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  Domestic demand is making a growing contribution to growth. This shows the recovery is broadening out and becoming increasingly self-sustaining.
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  The most recent confidence indicators are positive and support these forecasts.
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  On the fiscal side, there is also progress, with practically all euro area member states on a good track of fiscal consolidation (average 2009: -6.3%; 2011: -4.6%). Actually, the euro area enjoys a budget deficit lower than that of Japan and twice as low as that of the US (US 2010: -11.3%; Japan 2010: -6.5%). It is just another of those solid facts..., but often overlooked.
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  As for the euro, it has remained quite stable and is still at a value well above that at which it was launched: when it was at 80 dollar cents nobody said it was in danger, and now, at around 1 dollar 37, the euro was considered by some a few weeks ago in danger! Even if these figures are good, structural growth is still too low and that's why all Member States are working at structural reforms. Challenges in terms of competitiveness and low growth prospects in some countries are being addressed aggressively and courageously, with budget consolidation and deep structural reforms. We will devote the European Council of March to an evaluation of the speed and depth of the reforms. It will not be a bureaucratic operation like in the past. There will be institutional pressure on member states, besides eventually pressure from the markets.

P R E S S

FOR FURTHER DETAILS: Dirk De Backer - Spokesperson of the President - +32 (0)2 281 9768 - +32 (0)497 59 99 19 Jesús Carmona - Deputy Spokesperson of the President +32 (0)2 281 9548 / 6319 - +32 (0)475 65 32 15 e-mail: press.president@consilium.europa.eu - internet: www.european-council.europa.eu/vanrompuy

EN

The solid facts aside, there is the strong political will of the leaders of the EU and the Eurozone to do whatever is required to safeguard the Eurozone's financial stability. This determination is sometimes underestimated as well. Let me briefly recall the impressive series of decisions we have taken in 2010. Most of them would have been unthinkable

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  strengthening the Stability and Growth Pact, thus improving fiscal surveillance;
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  establishing new forms of macro-economic surveillance;
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  granting conditional emergency loans to two countries in difficulties, Greece and Ireland;
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  agreeing to set up a permanent mechanism to deal with such crises;
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  reform programs in the weaker economies and in the other ones. The EU has also established a new Europe-wide supervisory system for the financial sector. These decisions were not taken all at once. They had to be very carefully prepared. Together they constitute the biggest reform of the Economic and Monetary Union since the euro was created.

In some of the public perception, all this took too much time. It still surprises me how often the political context is forgotten. Like the fact that we are in democracy, in a system of one European Parliament and 27 national democracies and that, on most of these issues, we have to decide by consensus. In any case, direction is more important than speed.

Or the fact that one year ago we had no legal or political instruments whatsoever to deal with this crisis. It was only in the European Council of 11 February 2010 (only 2 weeks after last year's "Davos") that all European Heads of State or Government stated that we have a collective responsibility of the Euro area's financial stability! Since then, we have moved a long way forward. The national interests of each member state coincides with those of the Union and the euro. Our fate in interlinked. We are so interconnected that there is no other option than being responsible for its own households and showing solidarity with the others. Decisions and developments in the weeks and months ahead will confirm both the solid facts AND our political determination.

We will show this again with the decisions we will take in the European Council meetings of February and March. We will strengthen the crisis instruments we have and we will go further deepening the economic coordination in the Eurozone, beyond what was agreed in the Task Force on economic governance which I chaired. THAT's why I am positive about the outlook of the European economy. We are not complacent. We are determined.