Van Rompuy Sees Loss of Urgency on Euro Crisis

Posted September 24th, 2012 at 10:30 am (UTC-5)
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A key European leader says the continent is losing momentum in trying to resolve its three-year governmental debt crisis.

European Union President Herman Van Rompuy said Monday he sees “a tendency of losing the sense of urgency” to tighten economic reforms and cut deficits. But he stressed that “this must not happen.”

Van Rompuy said Europe is slipping into recession and officials are worried about the pace of reforms in Greece, Italy, Spain and France. He said that as long as 25 million workers are unemployed throughout the 27-nation EU, and “as long as we have not stabilized the euro, we cannot sit back.”

He said leaders from the 17-nation eurozone face “hard questions” at their summit next month on how to control spending in the currency bloc's individual countries. Three countries — Greece, Ireland and Portugal — have already been forced to secure international bailouts, along with the Spanish banking system.