Clegg: Eurozone 'risks extremism'
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has criticised the lack of leadership on the eurozone crisis, raising fears of a rise in extremism and civil unrest unless it was addressed.
Latest ITV News reports
Obama: Leaders agree Greece must remain in euro zone
President Barack Obama says that world leaders agree on the importance of Greece remaining in the euro zone.
Speaking at a press conference following a NATO summit in Chicago, said he believed there was an increased resolve on the part of European leaders to tackle the euro zone crisis.
He also said it was crucial for European banks to be recapitalized and for there to be firewalls to protect countries against financial contagion.
Cameron: Not enough has been done to resolve euro crisis
David Cameron says that not enough has been done to decisively resolve the euro zone crisis.
Cameron, speaking during a NATO summit in Chicago, said he would be meeting later in the day to discuss the crisis with Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.
Cameron stressed that British banks are well regulated and well capitalised.
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Labour: We need a growth plan for Europe and the UK
Labour leader Ed Miliband has said we need a "proper plan" for growth in Europe and in the UK.
He hit out at the "Cam-Mer-Kozy economics" that focused too much on deficit reduction and austerity and not enough on growth.
David Cameron: Eurozone needs to sort itself out
Prime Minister David Cameron said the Eurozone needed to take "decisive action" to sort itself out. A Downing Street spokesman said:
What is required now is decisiveness, because it is the lack of resolution of the problem that is leading to a lack of confidence and what people need now is certainty.
We need decisiveness, strong action by all governments, whether that's dealing with the deficit, whether that's dealing with the banks, in order to calm markets.
Miliband: We need a plan for growth in Europe
– Ed Miliband, Labour leaderThe real problem for Europe is not just that the debts need to be paid but we need a proper plan for growth. What's happened is German Chancellor Angela Merkel and David Cameron are sticking to their position and saying we're not for growth and that it's not the big priority.
And then you have President Obama and President Hollande who are actually saying we need a different approach. I think there's a divide between people who want to keep the same approach of the last two years and those who want to do something different.
We need a proper plan for jobs and growth both at home and in Europe.
Miliband: Collective austerity has not worked
Labour leader Ed Miliband said he had coined a new phrase - "Cam-Mer-Kozy economics" - to sum up the approach taken by the Prime Minister, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and former French president Nicolas Sarkozy over the last two years to tackling the eurozone crisis. He said:
"It's about collective austerity and it hasn't worked. It is time to wake up and recognise it and that's what the Prime Minister needs to do."
"Over the last few days he has found himself beached somewhere between President Obama and President Hollande and Chancellor Merkel, not quite sure where he is"
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Nick Clegg: Europe 'needs a vision of its own future'
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said in an article in German paper Der Spiegel that European leaders must work together with a common economic purpose and resist "vested interests in the national economy" in order to deliver a more integrated single market.
He said:
What we should be doing in the EU as a whole is more economic integration in the single market, rather than less.
He stressed the need for political leaders need to "set out a vision" so that confidence in the European project can return.
If the euro zone doesn't come up with a comprehensive vision of its own future, you'll have a whole range of nationalist, xenophobic and extreme movements increasing across the European Union.
Nick Clegg: 'We are not austerity fanatics'
In an interview with Der Spiegel, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg denied that the Government were "austerity fanatics" and said the new French President François Hollande's plan to cut the French deficit was "actually more severe" that the coalition's. He said:
- The Government's plans to cut the deficit are "more pragmatic and flexible" than critics claim.
- The UK is just one country losing faith in the EU and its institutions: but this does not mean we should leave
- It is entirely up to the Greek people to decide whether they should leave the Eurozone.
Clegg on EU: 'We are condemned to work with each other'
In an interview with German newspaper Der Spiegel, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has called for European leaders to "be more active" in implementing solutions to the Eurozone crisis and working together.
He dismissed claims that the UK was considering leaving the European Union:
"We are losing faith in the EU and its institutions, for understandable reasons, considering the economic problems we face. But that doesn't mean that it makes sense to forecast the breakup of the EU as a whole. [...]
That's ludicrous. We are condemned to work with each other. Isolation is not the solution."
Prime Minister urges Greece to make a choice
Prime Minister David Cameron has said the Greek people need to use their elections to decide "once and for all" whether the country should stay in the Eurozone.
Cameron said failure to provide clarity would prove "disastrous" for the world economy. His comments come as he attended back-to-back G8 and NATO summits in America.