Verklaring Van Rompuy over zijn ontmoeting met de Hongaarse premier Orbán (en)

Good afternoon.

I came to Budapest to debrief Prime Minister Orbán i about the result of yesterday's eurozone i summit.

I came also to prepare the work of the next European Council on 24 and 25 March, which will finalise the work of yesterday, and will also deal with the European semester, in which we will assess the state of play of our fiscal and economic policies.

I appreciate the close and direct working relations with Prime Minister Orbán. In the challenging period we are facing both economically and diplomatically, it is good to work as a team.

I had yesterday two exceptional meetings: one extraordinary European Council on the Southern Neighbourhood and Libya, the second one devoted to the euro. Regarding Libya, we made clear to its authorities that the use of force against citizens must stop. Those responsible will face grave consequences. The current leadership must give up power without delay. All 27 Heads of State or Government said it loud and clear.

In order to protect the civilian population, Member States will examine all necessary options, provided that there is a demonstrable need, a clear legal basis and support from the region. We called for the rapid holding of a summit between the Arab League, the African Union and the European Union.

The European Union welcomes and encourages the interim transitional national council based in Benghazi. We consider it a political interlocutor. But we certainly do not forget the Union's Eastern Partnership. Prime Minister Orbán and myself are convinced that it will gain new momentum at this year's summit with our Eastern Partners.

Regarding the euro meeting, the 17 euro area countries agreed yesterday on a "Pact for the euro". With this approval, we will enhance our economic policy coordination in the euro area but also in the whole European Union.

We designed a balanced approach.

Firstly, it is not a "one size fits all". It takes into account country specific circumstances. We will agree on common targets, for instance on wage development, pension sustainability, or employment. And Member States will be free in the choice of the means, with full respect of their tradition.

Like the tradition of social dialogue. Secondly, the Pact will be firmly anchored in our institutional framework. The Commission gets a key role. Thirdly, our non euro area colleagues are invited to join us in this approach.

I have insisted all along on that. Of course, it is perfectly justifiable that those who share a common currency do more together. On the other hand, the ten others are politically and economically very close. Many will join the Eurozone in the future. In these two senses, our Euro Pact really is a Euro Plus Pact: it is about what euro-countries decide to do more AND it is open to the others.

Euro area Heads of State or Government also took other important decisions to stabilise the situation of the euro area. I will not enter into details but I will mention them very briefly, because this is also important for you. We agreed:

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  to increase the effective lending capacity of the Facility to 440 billion and 500 billion for the permanent mechanism,
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  to allow for intervention in primary markets, and
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  to reduce interest rates for Greece.

We also talked about the work to be done till the next European Council on 24 and 25 March.

We will have to take important decisions on important issues, in particular the finalisation of the legislative proposals on economic governance. Hungary has made major progress in these negotiations, and I am confident that the Council will reach rapidly a political agreement on this file.

We will also have to agree on the priorities for our economic policies next year in the context of the European semester.

I would also like to discuss how to deepen the single market, on the basis of Commission proposals. Thank you.