Eurogroup President Dijsselbloem on restoring economic growth in Europe
On 17 February Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem took part in the OECD Seminar “The euro area at a crossroads: policies for growth, jobs and competitiveness”.
In his speech he emphasised the importance of structural reforms to increase growth potential. After the immediate crisis response and the strengthening of institutions and economic governance, restoring economic growth is on the top of Europe’s policy agenda.
Growth is necessary for sustainable public finances and the preservation of the European social model. Several countries have already undertaken impressive reforms. But there is still considerable scope for further efforts in a wide range of areas and a sense of urgency is crucial for achieving more results.
According to President Dijsselbloem, Europe should now begin a new phase and take a more offensive approach to boost growth. This approach entails joint work on competitiveness and coordinated reforms with single standards. After having developed common standards and joint cooperation in the banking sector, similar joint reforms could be conducted in other crucial sectors of the economy such as protected professions in services markets for example.
"The same mechanism we now have developed for our budgets could be used to create political leverage to improve the eurozone's competitiveness," suggested President Dijsselbloem. "It takes a joint effort to do what people expect us to do: to push for more growth and jobs."