"I think that the discussion of whether we should save or stimulate only is indeed outdated. A decision has been made in European councils a long time ago, and all politicians agree that these two things cannot be contrasted," Grybauskaitė told Brussels journalists after arriving at a summit on Thursday.
In her words, investments in economic development should be made "in a careful and responsible manner," particularly in heavily indebted countries.
"The countries that are heavily in debt, which were irresponsible and wasted money, they cannot expect someone to pay for their irresponsible policies," the president added.
"Promotion instruments should be harmonized with responsible fiscal and financial policies. It is an axiom," Grybauskaitė said in Brussels.
On the other hand, she said, austerity measures should be "growth-friendly" and "not hindering towards economic development."
The president emphasized that the situation of the Baltic states in the general European economic context is rather good.
"So far, we see that the European economy is having a hard time recovering, especially with the negative growth forecast for the eurozone this year, although the Baltic region has already shown a rather stable growth of 3 percent. This indicates that our country has managed to ensure fast recovery after the economic crisis, while the rest of Europe is still faced with substantial problems," said Grybauskaitė.
Instruments for economic recovery will top the agenda of the two-day summit, which started in Brussels on Thursday afternoon.
