mr president it seems somewhat ironically appropriate that the european council should be discussing a permanent crisis mechanism as the euro certainly seems to be lurching from crisis to crisis at the moment
although many of us in the uk always thought that the euro was a historic mistake both for our own country and for europe as a whole we of course take no satisfaction in seeing this situation
we want to see it resolved at a european level by a decisive return to fiscal discipline across the union
it will not be solved by more borrowing either at an eu or at a local level
but let us be clear where the responsibility for this situation for the euro lies
it is the duty of every member state within the eurozone to fulfil its commitments to that zone and it is the job of other participating states to ensure that they do so
this is one of the key reasons why they have a separate meeting of eurozone ministers
to put it bluntly the stable management of the eurozone is primarily the responsibility of the members of the eurozone
the rest of us can provide political support but that is as far as it should go
there cannot be any justification for further burdens or any sanctions being imposed on those member states who chose not to make the mistake of joining the eurozone in the first place
