Publications 2012
It's now or never for European growth
28 June 2012It is crunch time for Europe now, and the eyes of the world are on Brussels this week. Economic growth is the best and most efficient way to reduce public debt and the deficit burden that are currently weighing Europe down: austerity without growth is not working, writes Hans Martens ahead of this week’s EU summit, urging leaders to spend as much time focusing on growth as on fiscal discipline.
Leaders must reshape the balance between fiscal discipline and economic growth. They must not just try implementing a series of short-term patches, but actually present a real growth plan: one that can have an immediate impact, while at the same time setting out a credible path for the medium and longer term, Martens’ commentary argues.
They need to do this in a credible manner that not only satisfies the financial markets, but also all those Europeans who together shape the European economy, and whose actions determine the direction of our economic, social and political futures, Martens writes.
It's now or never for European growth