"The crisis is not over and all statements by EU leaders suggesting that the worst is behind us are based on a wrong assessment. The crisis is not over because we have only been addressing the symptoms and only with half measures", said ALDE Group President Guy Verhofstadt.

"We imposed austerity, established emergency funds, injected 1 trillion euro into the banking system, bought over 100 billion euros of sovereign debt from Portugal, Italy and Ireland and decided on the biggest haircut in history for Greek sovereign debt. Yet despite all this interest rates in Spain and Italy are back where they were six months ago, around 6%, and spreads on 10 year bond yields are increasing all over Europe".

"One thing is clear, instead of expressing complacency with a reality that does not exist, we need a new approach - a structural approach based on two tracks. Firstly we expect the Commission to propose as fast as possible a new and real global Growth Strategy which uses funds of the EIB, the unused money in the EU budget and project bonds. Secondly we need to create a European Redemption Fund that by mutualising part of the Member States debt would be worth 2.3 trillion euro ".

"By following this new approach, tax payers will finally not be asked to continue paying for the crisis as they do right now because the bond holders would bear the risks and the costs instead", Verhofstadt concluded.