Socialists and Democrats called today for a strong joint action among EU institutions to find a way out of the crisis. This comes as German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French president François Hollande, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti meet in Rome in preparation for next week's EU Summit in Brussels.

 

 

"The recent downgrades from Moody's have again shown the conflict between the financial markets and politics. It is now time for politicians to take courageous steps to get our continent back on track.

 

"There are three major initiatives on the table that would allow Europe to move forward. First of all, there is the Growth Pact suggested by François Hollande. Secondly, we have the agreement reached yesterday between the German government and the opposition to take important steps with regard to further economic integration. Lastly, we have the proposals made by Mario Monti for closer ties in fiscal policy. These are very important suggestions and the Summit must now take action to implement them.

 

"The upcoming Summit may not yet be another disappointment. We must come up with concrete action and give a signal to the financial markets that we take our responsibility seriously.

 

"The Summit should give the green light for the finance ministers to move ahead with the financial transaction tax. Recently we have seen strong support for this instrument even from the financial sector itself. So it is time to move ahead, if necessary, on the basis of enhanced co-operation and without agreement from all countries."

 

"We see the Rome meeting as a pre-meeting to prepare concrete decisions for the Summit next week. This is important but it should be clear that any meeting in a smaller circle cannot be a substitute for decisive action with all the leaders around the table.

 

"One outcome next week could be that all three institutions, including the Council, the Commission and the European Parliament, agree on a joint approach; the so-called inter-institutional agreement, which was proposed by Commission President José Manuel Barroso. Our Group would strongly support such a joint approach as we believe that this would speed up of the necessary decisions. 

 

"To move forward on dossiers such as the Banking Union, the European Parliament is needed. The European Parliament is an institution that can act quickly and must have a strong role in the important phase of implementing the decisions that are being taken in this critical moment in time."