In his speech at a meeting of the Conference of Parliamentary Committees for Union Affairs of Parliaments of the European Union (COSAC), Šefčovič assured participants that trust in the EU economy is rising.
"The future of the Economic and Monetary Union, and the closer political union that must inevitably come with it, will occupy us for the next six months and many years to come," he said.
According to the Slocak politician, the creation of the Economic and Monetary Unions and the euro introduction were milestones on the road to European integration but the financial crisis revealed weaknesses in the system.
"The financial crisis has revealed the weaknesses in the system, and where we need to act to make it stronger and, hopefully, 'crisis proof' in the future. Despite the rules – agreed by every member state – that underpin not just the euro but the whole economic and monetary union, several euro area Member States accumulated large private and public debts," the EC deputy president said.
In his words, there are the directions Europe needs to work on, including the resolution of problems caused by the crisis itself, tightening of the economic governance regime and overhauling the foundation of the Economic and Monetary Union.
"These measures have already started to take effect, and we are, hopefully, over the worst of the current crisis. But it has not gone away completely, of course, and we have to continue to follow these new rules if we want to ensure that it does not return," Šefčovič said.
