The agreement reached early this morning involving all the EU Institutions to give a robust and sustainable framework for monetary union, is welcome news for the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe who since the beginning of the crisis have argued for a European solution.

"These two extraordinary days of non-stop negotiations first among the Euro-group and then among the European Finance Ministers have concluded with a solution that I have been recommending for months, the issuance by the European Commission of Eurobonds thanks to the collective guarantee of the EU budget, for which I am very satisfied", commented Guy VERHOFSTADT, President of ALDE this morning. "The breadth of the member state's guarantee for the stabilisation mechanism which the European Commission will oversee, and the dramatic intervention of the ECB and its evolving doctrine concerning the buying of national treasury bonds, once again proves that the European Union is stronger when united", he added.

"This is a return to the community method which has contributed to Europe´s success for the past 60 years. True, the IMF continues to play an important role, but there has finally been an awakening. The fact that countries outside the Eurozone like Poland have decided to adhere to this mechanism proves that the Euro is the reference for all of Europe, and that not all Europeans intend to abandon the Euro to the erratic markets", continued Guy Verhofstadt.

"We must continue to push the community method, pursuing this stabilization mechanism through to a true European Monetary Fund and thus reassuring the basis of the European bond market, and defining credible rules of economic governance for the Eurozone. All member states have finally realized their budgetary and economic interdependence. It is time they develop procedures that will allow coordination of their national budgetary and economic policies", concluded ALDE s president.

For more information, please contact:

Neil Corlett: + 32-2-284 20 77 ou + 32-478-78 22 84

Courriel: neil.corlett@europarl.europa.eu

Yannick Laude: +32-2-284 31 69 ou +32-495-22 78 37