European Council: "we can no longer function without a political union", says Joseph Daul Chairman of the EPP Group

The Chairman of the largest and most influential Group in the European Parliament deplores the delay of a true political union where Member States share sovereignty: "I wonder what worse situation than unemployment, the difficulties our companies face, or the excessive levels of interest rates our countries have to pay before we wake up to the fact that a single currency cannot work without a common economic policy. The document presented by President Van Rompuy goes in the right direction as it sets, finally, a political Europe as the ultimate goal. But, it foresees a period of preparation spread out over 10 years. Yet everyone knows that Europe will not survive until 2022 without budgetary, fiscal and social integration!"

"The EPP Group is satisfied by the advances made in the Growth and Employment Pact. My Group also supports the system of banking supervision, the proposal for a European deposit guarantee and the plans for European banking union. Our citizens have to know that their savings are protected, and all the new mechanisms which will guarantee this are headed in the right direction. These now have to be implemented and I call on the Commission, Guardian of the Treaties, to ensure this with perhaps a little more rigour than has been the case up until now", added Joseph Daul.

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