Heger: Joint Action and Coordination EU's Answer to Rising Prices
Brussels, June 24 (TASR-correspondent) – Joint action and joint coordination is the strongest tool EU countries can use to alleviate the current economic situation in Europe, Prime Minister Eduard Heger (OLaNO) stated on Friday after the end of the EU summit in Brussels, the final part of which was focused on economic and financial affairs.
The prime minister pointed out that EU leaders approved Croatia to enter the eurozone as of January 1, 2023 and welcomed the news that Greece is leaving the financial assistance programme in the summer and returning to financial markets, which was made possible by a helping hand from the EU.
According to Heger, the conclusions of the second part of the summit can be summed up that inflation in the EU will continue next year, and then it should go down. The prime minister added that it can be said that in the EU we have both supply and demand inflation side by side, caused not only by rising energy prices, which is also due to Russia’s policy and the war in Ukraine, but also the post-COVID shock and behaviour of consumers who invest more in goods and increase their price.
That’s also why EU leaders support the idea of a common approach and, for example, also joint purchases of natural gas, which has proved its worth in jointly purchasing vaccines during the pandemic.
Heger further said that they also agreed on the need to coordinate individual steps at national level, as all countries are part of a single market that needs to be protected in order to continue to function well. The European Commission has been given the task of ensuring maximum coordination between member states, and if measures work well in a country, it should ensure that other countries can be inspired and apply them.
