On a high level visit this week to the Baltic States Guy Verhofstadt (ALDE group leader) has been outlining a package of proposals to shore up the economies of the region which have come under exceptional financial pressure as a result of the recent crisis and do not benefit from the relative security of the Eurozone.

Verhofstadt's Five Point Plan was welcomed by the Heads of State and Government and parliamentarians from relevant economic and European affairs committees of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, as well as by leaders of the opposition. They pointed out that this visit showed that the European Parliament was concerned and committed to support the Baltic States, some of them having been hit particularly hard by the crisis.

Verhofstadt will be outlining his recommendations to fellow group leaders in the European Parliament at its next meeting and recommending that Parliament take up the call for a more concerted and ambitious EU programme of assistance and recovery to struggling EU economies in Eastern Europe.

"The global financial crisis has exposed fundamental weaknesses and financial and economic imbalances such as soaring current account deficits in many countries of the EU, but especially so in Central and Eastern Europe which remains largely outside the relative protection of the Single Currency," declared Verhofstadt.

"As a result many foreign investors are seeking safer havens, putting the economies and currencies of these countries under additional pressure whilst the weaker demand from the euro area is acting as a brake on possible recovery. The European Union has both the capacity and duty to assist. The EU, ECB and EIB must take the lead in stabilising these economies and not leave it up to the IMF or EBRD alone to provide financial support. In particular the EU should help these Member States progressively fulfil the conditions for accession to the euro-zone, with full respect for the Maastricht criteria."

Verhofstadt's proposals include:

• extend exceptional ECB liquidity to local banks in support of investment and consumption and enlarge eligible collateral to bonds denominated in non-euro EU member currencies;
• launch a specific EIB lending facility to those countries concerned;
• ease access to EU funds by reducing the national co-financing requirements of the ESF, ERDF and Cohesion Fund in support of training or investment in energy and transport networks;
• speed up disbursement of the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund by integrating it into the main EU budget and thus avoid a separate decision of the budget authority on each application.
• explore the possibility of introducing the euro as a joint legal tender, alongside the national currencies which would continue to exist until accession to EMU is achieved in order to enhance credibility of the exchange rate arrangements.