Merkel urges greater political and economic integration to overcome the eurozone crisis

Open Europe:  Speaking at the CDU’s party congress in Leipzig yesterday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for further political and economic integration in order to overcome the eurozone debt crisis. She argued that: “we are all part of European domestic politics…the task of our generation is to complete economic and monetary union, and build political union in Europe, step by step…?That does not mean less Europe, it means more Europe…so that the euro has a future”.

Merkel defended the need for an expanded bailout fund, and called for Treaty changes that would allow fiscal discipline to be enforced: “We need a rescue fund to hold the euro together. We need to build a firewall if Greece is forced to reschedule its debts…?but in parallel we need improving financial management in many European countries, who also need to do more to improve their competitiveness… We want to have automatic sanctions if countries violate the European Stability and Growth Pact and the opportunity for real intervention which would be the right to take those countries to the European Court of Justice, we need to amend these weaknesses in the Lisbon Treaty so that we have shared responsibility”. Merkel also reiterated her call for the introduction of a financial transaction tax, saying that if there was no agreement at the European level, it ought to be introduced within the eurozone nonetheless.