The president of the EU commission the Portuguese Barosso has defended the Union agaisnt the difficulties that austerity has caused in countries such as Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain."I know many parts of our societies attribute the current difficulties to European Union level and this is not fair because it was not the European Union that created the problems," Barroso told reporters at Dublin Castle.
Barroso was speaking at a joint press conference with Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny in Dublin to coincide with the beginning of Ireland's tenure of the six-month rotating EU presidency, AFP reported.
"I want to make this clear because there is a myth that it is the European Union that imposes difficult policies. It's not true," Barroso said.
"The cause of the difficulties some countries are facing is excessive public debt created by national governments and irresponsible financial behaviour, that also accumulated excessive private debt including financial bubbles that happened under the responsibility of national supervisors," he added.
"This is why now countries have to make painful adjustments. Britain is having a very tough budget and Britain is not a member of the euro."•eurozone crisis
I think we can say that the existential threat against the euro has essentially been overcome," Barroso said in Lisbon. "In 2013 the question won't be if the euro will, or will not, implode," he said.
EU commission President Juan Manuel Barroso has maintained an optimistic stance throughout the crisis, but his comments were in sharp contrast to the new year's message from German chancellor Angela Merkel, who told TV viewers last week that the currency zone faced another rocky 12 months.http://www.examiner.com/article/barosso-declares-ez-crisis-over
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