Published: Fri, 27 Feb 2009 09:51:59 +0100

ECB's Ordonez Says Euro Providing "Immense Benefits" to Euro Zone Members

(CEP News) Frankfurt - The euro is providing "immense benefits" to the members of the monetary union, shielding them from the effects of the current financial crisis, European Central Bank Governing Council member Miguel Angel Fernandez Ordonez said on Friday.

Speaking at a conference in Madrid, Spain, the central banker warned that nationally-focused crisis solutions are doomed to fail and called for a higher level of European integration as a way to help boost economies out of their current slump.

"Responses based on the adoption of measures designed with an eminently national focus are destined to failure, as in the past," Ordonez said. "The response to the current difficulties that our economies face is more monetary union and more European Union."

Ordonez also said the ECB would act as an anchor to inflation expectations and that fiscal discipline needs to be maintained in Europe.

"The Stability and Growth Pact and all the efforts of the Eurogroup these past years to maintain a co-ordinated and disciplined fiscal policy have been essential and must continue to be in the future."

Written by CEP News European Staff, eunews@economicnews.ca, edited by Stephen Huebl, shuebl@economicnews.ca