Italian PM Calls For Deeper European Economic Integration

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti is in London as part of a whirlwind European tour.

 

After a meeting with British Prime Minister David Cameron, and a closed-door conference with financiers and investors, Monti spoke to reporters at the London Stock Exchange.

 

[Mario Monti, Italian Prime Minister]: 

"We both believe the UK and Italy that adherence to fiscal disipline is a necessary condition for growth. It is not, however, sufficient condition. And we both believe that not only our individual countries, but European Union as a whole has a big role to play in order to foster economic union in a sustainable way. At the center of this policy for growth in both our visions, lies the single market that is a deeper economic integration within the European Union."

 

The meeting comes as the crisis continues in the euro zone, with Italy one of the nine member states to have their credit ratings downgraded last week.

 

[Mario Monti, Italian Prime Minister]: 

"Within the euro zone maybe we have sometimes forgotten that EMU means Economic and Monetary Union. The M is key and needs all the attention that it has received, but the E, Economic Union, has not always been paid the attention that it badly deserves. In particular, that means that we need to bring the debts and the smoothness, and concreteness of the single market to full fruition, which is not always the case." 

 

The International Monetary Fund announced on Wednesday it is likely to request a further 500 billion U.S. dollars to bolster it's lending capacity.

 

This would help protect the global economy should the euro zone economic situation deteriorate further.