–Says Growth Needs To Be At The “Center Of The Agenda”
BARCELONA (MNI) – European Central Bank President Mario Draghi on
Thursday said he saw no contradiction between his call for a “growth
compact” and Europe’s “fiscal compact,” which tightens surveillance of
deficit cutting policies and stiffens penalties for the EU’s fiscal
transgressors.
There is “absolutely no contradiction between a growth compact and
a fiscal compact,” Draghi said at the ECB’s monthly press conference,
explaining that growth depended on fiscal stability.
“Growth needs to be put at the center of the agenda,” he declared.
Elaborating on his idea of a “growth compact,” first mentioned last
week at the European Parliament in Brussels, Draghi said it referred to
“a variety of ideas that have been expressed in a number of places,” and
not something unique he had come up with himself.
Firstly it involves “structural reforms in all the economies of the
euro area,” Draghi said.
Although the specific reforms need to be varied in each member
state, greater competition in product markets was a common theme, he
said.
Europe needs to break down the remaining barriers in its internal
market “as a very first step,” he said, arguing that it was harder to
tackle the issue of labour mobility within the EU before there was more
competition in product markets.
Labour market reforms to increase flexibility, mobility and
fairness are also crucial, Draghi said.
The ECB President’s recipe for growth did not involve more
government spending, Draghi made clear. “An increase in current spending
would not be of great help; stopping fiscal consolidation would not be
of great help,” he said.
“Clarity about our common European future is one important
ingredient in growth,” Draghi asserted, describing the fiscal compact
agreed by European leaders earlier this year as “a starting point” on
the path towards a possible “fiscal union.”
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