Growth first, budgets second: EU economic chief designate

Boosting growth and employment in the European Union will be the top priority for the new European Union chief for economic affairs, with sound public finances a second, the Commissioner-designate has said.
Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner-designate Olli Rehn said in written answers to parliamentary questions before a hearing on January 11 that his third priority would be to boost the 27-nation bloc's international position in economic affairs, mainly by making it speak with one voice. "This is what our citizens need and ask most urgently, and this must be our joint overarching objective in the coming years," said Rehn, who is not Enlargement Commissioner.