Jose Manuel Barroso vowed on Thursday to seek more co-operation within the European Union and the eurozone if elected for a second five-year term as president of the EU's executive European Commission. Closer ties within the blocs are needed to ward off economic crises and, in particular, to withdraw the fiscal stimuli with which governments have battled the worst downturn in decades, he said in a policy document sent to the European Parliament.
"Under my leadership, the Commission will use the full range of possibilities in the (EU) treaty to strengthen the convergence of objectives and the coherence of the effects of economic policy, particularly in the euro area," he wrote. It was too early to scrap such growth-boosting measures now.
"The timing of exit strategy should also be co-ordinated at the global level ... It will reassure markets that the recent increase in government debt will be reversed, while ensuring that a premature exit does not put recovery at risk," he said. He added governments' efforts to battle the downturn should be accompanied by low interest rates across the region.
Barroso's statement was intended to convince the European Parliament to back him as Commission chief in a vote expected in mid-September. He has secured support from the EU's 27 governments. Barroso said the Commission would apply the EU's state aid rules in a flexible way to help governments fight the crisis, while ensuring that doing so does not harm the bloc's single market.
Barroso also signalled that the Commission would be lenient in applying EU budget rules, which set countries' deficit ceiling at 3 percent of gross domestic product. An overwhelming majority of EU countries have exceeded the level in 2008 and this year because of the crisis.
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