The Commission presents a Blueprint for a deep and genuine economic and monetary union
"We must counter this crisis of confidence by showing that we are ready to move ahead and strengthen cooperation and integration in the financial, fiscal, economic and also in the political field. That is what the Blueprint on a Deep and Genuine EMU seeks to achieve."
The Blueprint presented today is the Commission contribution to the report of the four presidents to be presented to the European Council in December. It identifies the weaknesses in the functioning of the current Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) and maps out the measures needed to underpin it in future.
"Of course we know that there will be some that will be calling for more discipline. Some will be calling for more solidarity. The main message of the Blueprint is that we need both. We need a process in the economic and monetary union of combining this increased solidarity with this increased discipline, so to make the EMU really credible, and to deepen it, to become a genuine economic and monetary union," said President Barroso.
The measures proposed in the Blueprint include short term, medium term and long term perspective. Many of them can be accomplished through secondary legislation. Some of the longer-term proposals presented will require a Treaty change
In the short term – in the next 6 to 18 months – we are putting forward an ambitious work programme including the start of the fiscal capacity for the Euro Area. It would combine the strong commitment to concrete structural reforms with financial support for them, set out in contractual arrangements between Member States and the Commission. It would be granted for reform packages that are important both for the Member States concerned and for the good functioning of EMU. Another thing we can do without Treaty change in the short term would be to set up a single resolution mechanism for banks.
In the medium term, which is in the next 18 months to 5 years, the collective conduct of budgetary policy and also coordination of economic policies need to be strengthened. Given a clearly reinforced economic and fiscal governance framework we could envision the set-up of a debt redemption fund linked to strict conditionality, as well as the issuance of short-term eurobills, requiring of course a closer coordination and supervision of Member States' debt management. These further steps would require a new legal basis in the Treaties.
Beyond five years, the blueprint proposes a full banking, fiscal and economic union equipped with a true stabilization and shock-absorbing function. This would require a more comprehensive overhaul of the Treaties.
Read the executive summary 
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Read more about the 2013 Annual Growth Survey adopted on the same day