LONDON (MNI) – EU President Herman Van Rompuy said today that EU
leaders had achieved a wide measure of consensus on aspects of the
taskforce on economic governance.

Speaking to a press conference following today’s summit meeting,
Van Rompuy said that “heads of state and governments wanted to continue
the work and to keep the momentum.”

He added:

“We have a large consensus on some of the most important issues
like the macro-economic surveillance framework, and this will monitor
and correct imbalances, risk of bubbles and divergences in
competitiveness.”

Van Rompuy said that there had also been agreement on national
fiscal frameworks and enshrining EU budget rules in national
legislation. Progress had also been made on sanctions – “even if more
work is needed,” he added.

“In October I will present to the European Council (EU summit) the
full report of the taskforce.”

EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barosso said what he took away
from the talks Thursday was “the economic situation is today better than
what we expected it to be one year ago. There is no room for
complacency.”

“We should keep our efforts and that means not only go on with
fiscal consolidation and structural reforms, but that means also
delivering on economic governance and reform of financial markets and
also, of course, in the way we handle these issues globally from the G20
to deliberations with our main strategic partners.”

“Economic governance was a very important point,” Barroso said.

Barroso said that the Commission would make proposals on the
taskforce on Sept. 29.

“The plan is to turn this (taskforce proposals) into action.”

“There was a broad consensus, there was an agreement, that we
should keep the momentum in terms of the reforms of our system,” he
added.

–London Newsroom: 00 44 207 862 7492; email: ukeditorial@marketnews.com

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