European Council: The EU must act together to resolve the economic and financial crisis

1.09.00pm GMT Thu 6th Nov 2008

The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe considers that the financial crisis should be an opportunity for better European and world economic governance and hopes that the Extraordinary European Council meeting tomorrow will be the moment for the European Union to unite on the eve of the next International Economic Summit on 15 November.

Graham Watson, President of ALDE Group and local MEP for the South West and Gibraltar commented: "It is time the EU puts flesh on the bones of policy needs identified at the last summit. Progess needs to be made, for example, on a more institutionalised approach to regulation. However, the danger of too much summitry is that governments begin to disagree. The conclusions of this summit should be concise and businesslike. From now on we will need less summitry and more symmetry.

Emergency meetings of the European Top are designed to give the impression of urgency and things getting done. While the haste might be real, the EU is still to make good on its financial rhetoric. Tomorrow's meeting should come to a consensus on EU-wide measures to boost our economy and a clear plan for a bold reform of the international financial system".

Much remains to be done on the political front says Andrew DUFF (LibDem, United Kingdom): "the political coordination of both economic and monetary policy needs to be tightened -- especially within the eurozone, whose size is set to expand rapidly. Abroad, we need a single EU approach to the reform of the international monetary system."