FRANKFURT (MNI) – Financial integration is essential for Eurozone
competitiveness and efficiency, European Central Bank Executive Board
member Benoit Coeure said Friday.
“However, we cannot simply return to the kind of financial
integration we had in the pre-crisis era,” Coeure said in a text for
delivery at a Princeton University conference.
“I have argued on other occasions that European policy-makers ought
to adopt a ‘Financial Compact’ as a complement to monetary union and to
the Fiscal Compact, and pursue the creation – or re-creation – of a true
pan-European market for capital,” he said.
Coeure also stressed that ex-ante monitoring and peer pressure
were needed to control governments’ budgets and called for the
prompt ratification and application of the Fiscal Compact.
“Consistent application of its provisions – in particular, the
balanced-budget rule – will restore market confidence and the ability of
national fiscal policy to smooth out the effects of adverse economic
shocks,” the central banker said.
— Frankfurt bureau: +49 69 720 142; email: frankfurt@marketnews.com —
[TOPICS: M$$CR$,M$X$$$,M$$EC$,MGX$$$]
