FRANKFURT (MNI) – The European Union should consider setting up an
independent body to survey member states’ fiscal policies that would be
similar to the United States’ Congressional Budget Office, European
Central Bank Executive Board member Juergen Stark said Monday in a radio
interview on Austria’s Oe1 radio.
Although there is a severe crisis at present in the Eurozone, the
viability of the single currency is not in doubt, Stark assured.
In an effort to control balooning budget deficits, the European
Union should “consider having an independent commission…that would
regularly address the condition of public finances in individual
countries,” Stark argued.
Stark mentioned the Congressional Budget Office as being a possible
inspiration for such a body in the European Union. He noted the CBO is
accepted by both parties in the United States. “I could imagine…that
we could have a similar practice here in Europe,” he said.
“We are in a severe crisis,” Stark intoned, “but nobody is
questioning the euro,” he insisted.
“I see the current situation as a wakeup call for politicians in
the Eurozone and in the EU to reconsider their actions and to orient
more strongly their national economic policies to the conditions of the
currency zone,” he elaborated.
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–Frankfurt bureau; +49-69-720142; frankfurt@marketnews.com
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