STRASBOURG, France (MNI) – Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti said
Wednesday that euro bonds, or stability bonds, are a useful tool that
could help speed European integration.
“They are a tool for greater financial market integration,” Monti
said told the European Parliament here. “They could deliver a
contribution to ensure that financial markets are more disciplined.”
Referring to German opposition to euro bonds, Monti said if “a
major European country” believes they should be introduced only after a
solid framework for budget discipline is in place, this should be taken
into account. “But we will get there.”
Monti also said that the debt crisis risked splitting Europe
between north and south and unraveling the integration already achieved.
“The Eurozone crisis has given rise to too much resentment and to
many stereotypes,” Monti said, noting that Italy was referred to as a
peripheral country but was the Eurozone’s third largest economy.
France and Germany, he said, were also responsible for weakening
the Stability and Growth Pact a decade ago, leading in some ways to
today’s credibility crisis. “A major undermining of budget credibility
came from the lynchpin of the Eurozone,” he said.
“There are responsibilities in the center and in the periphery,” he
said. “There are no good guys and bad guys. We are all responsible.”
–Paris newsroom, +33142715540; jduffy@marketnews.com
[TOPICS: M$$CR$,MGX$$$,M$I$$$,M$X$$$]
