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Bildt: budget rules 'must be obeyed'

Published: 29 Nov 11 07:27 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/37624/20111129/

Foreign Minister Carl Bildt on Monday defended a European single market but said that stricter budget supervision and regulation by Brussels will only work if already existing rules are adhered to.

"You might say that the crisis has been caused to a very large extent by people not respecting the rules that are already there ... if they don't abide by the previous rules it doesn't make much sense to impose new rules," Bildt said during a visit to the Latvian capital Riga.

"But we do see the need to strengthen economic surveillance," he added.

"We need more Europe, but not more Europes," Bildt said, speaking out against proposals for a so-called "two-speed Europe" with a core of more-integrated states in the 27-member bloc based on European Union powerhouses Germany and France.

The Swedish foreign minister made the comments following talks with Latvian Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis.

After meeting with his Latvian counterpart foreign minister Edgars Rinkevics, Bildt further developed the theme.

"In some respects we have a twin-speed Europe. We have the growing economies of northern Europe and the indebted economies of southern Europe.

That is the way it is at the moment," Bildt said.

"We are very much in favour of preserving the institutional architecture that's necessary for the maintenance of the single market.

"When I said this quip about multiple Europes, that can be seen as a slight warning that we don't go into institutional set-ups that over time might impair the single market," he said.

AFP/The Local (news@thelocal.se)

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07:57 November 29, 2011 by Abe L
It's not caused by people not respecting the rules, it's caused by others not taking repercussions! There is a single set of qualifying criteria to enter the Euro and once you've passed you can forget about any rules, nobody takes any action if you don't abide them.

Step one should be booting everyone that doesn't comply with existing regulation from the Euro and have bi-yearly checks to make sure people keep complying. If they don't, they have till the next check to fix it and otherwise get booted again.

The EU feels like a Swedish company, once you get hired you can simply not do your job as nobody can fire you!
09:37 November 29, 2011 by Great Scott
Why does this idiot always look so clueless?
13:22 November 29, 2011 by salalah
Bildt: "When I was born, i was about this long and my mother knew I was going to be a tall guy with a stupid agenda"
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