Following the meeting between Chancellor Merkel and President Sarkozy today
in Paris, Guy Verhofstadt, President of the Alliance of Liberals and
Democrats in the European Parliament commented:

'Though I welcome the common statement calling for an economic government of
the eurozone, I do not really see how a Council of the Heads of State and
Governments meeting once every six months will provide this.  It is six
times less than their colleagues in the Eurogroup.  Instead what is needed
is a real economic government that is in charge and can react effectively to
all eventualities.  This can only happen through the creation of an innercabinet in the
Commission. The European Commission must be rearranged to include a cluster
of Commissioners responsible for the Eurozone and headed by the current
Economic Affairs Commissioner.  Furthermore, he should also chair the
Eurogroup.

'An economic government must also have tools at its disposal.  Tools that
are currently lacking.  This includes the mutualisation of debt through the
issuance of eurobonds and strict rules on public deficits that are policed
independently from the Member States.

'Finally, economic governance also means that there needs to be a common
economic convergence plan for all eurozone Member States that sets out
binding targets with both carrots and sticks.  Simple targets as set out in
the Europact Plus are not sufficient as already have been proved by the
failure of the so called Lisbon-strategy.

'Action is urgently required.  The markets have already reacted negatively
to today's statement by Mrs Merkel and Mr Sarkozy. And the ECB cannot
forever buys bonds of eurozone countries in difficulty. When will European
leaders realise that they keep on making the same mistakes of too little too
late.  It is a quantum step towards a federal Union that is needed if the
euro is to be saved.  Todays annoucements are sadly well short of the mark.