José Manuel Barroso, President of the EC, gave a press conference on the Economy and on Greece at the end of a debate on the economic situation in Europe which was held during the weekly meeting of the Barroso II Commission. Ahead of the G8 Summit, he said that the EC had been working tirelessly to assist Greece and would continue to do so. He highlighted that the ultimate resolve to stay in the euro area had to come from Greece itself.The President then stressed that the situation was asking a lot of the Greek people, with many sacrifices. But he pointed out that this was a result of the legacy of past policies. The economic adjustment programme for Greece was the least difficult of all the difficult alternatives.Talking about the need to revive economic activity in the EU as a whole José Manuel Barroso announced that the EC would prepare a growth initiative for the European Council of 28-29/06/2012. This was also the clear message the President was taking to the G8 summit the day after in Camp David.

Type: College   Reference: I-073352   Date: 16/05/2012   Duration: 02:12
Personalities:   Barnier, Michel |   Georgieva, Kristalina |   Damanaki, Maria |   Lewandowski, Janusz |   Šemeta, Algirdas |   Oettinger, Günther |   Potočnik, Janez |   Malmström, Cecilia |   Laitenberger, Johannes |   Day, Catherine |   Geoghegan-Quinn, Máire |   Barroso, José Manuel  
Location: Brussels - EC/Berlaymont  
Languages: ORIGINAL

Tags: Barroso II Commission | Democracy | Economic situation | Euro area | European Commission - Secretary general | European Commission - cabinet | European Commission - college | European Commission - meeting | Greece | Growth | National election
RAPID: SPEECH,

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