The European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso called Wednesday for a joint response from the European Union (EU) member states to the current financial crisis.
"It is not just a problem of injecting liquidity," Barroso told a news conference. "We also need to inject credibility in the European response. That is why we are urging member states for closer cooperation."
His appeal came as four major powers within the EU, namely Britain, France, Germany and Italy, were planning to hold a summit Saturday in Paris on the financial crisis.
Barroso said he had been working closely with French President Nicolas Sarkozy on proposals to the mini summit for a joint approach. That will set stage for a full EU summit on Oct. 15-16.
The European Commission chief also called for global solutions beyond European ones. He said the commission supports Sarkozy's initiative to hold an international conference in the autumn to consolidate the overall efforts of stabilization of the financial markets.
Barroso urged the U.S. government to shoulder its responsibility by swiftly adopting the 700-billion-dollar bailout plan, which was rejected by the House of Representatives Monday.
"The U.S. must take responsibility. I trust that the U.S. will show the statesmanship that is now required, for their sake and all our sake," he said.
The financial crisis, which originated in the United States, is taking its toll on Europe recently, with several EU governments forced to inject billions of euros to save troubled banks.
Barroso said although there is no common response on the EU level, separate actions at national level have been working well so far.
"It is fair to say that the work achieved since the beginning of the crisis, and more particularly in the last few days, shows that our system can cope," he said. "The European financial system has the ability to respond."
But Barroso said it is essential to go beyond the short term measures and to put into a place a structured, a truly European response.
In particular, Barroso called for a further strengthening of the supervision structures at the European level, better rules on the evaluation of complex assets and transparency of executive pay.
He also said EU member states should improve the consistency of deposit guarantee schemes and continue structural reforms.
Ireland decided on Tuesday to guarantee all deposits in Irish banks in order to dispel anxiety of depositors about their savings, which angered Britain since the measure put foreign banks at a competitive disadvantage.
Source: Xinhua
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