MEPs' urge to tackle financial crisis

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Thu 23rd Oct 2008

MEPs this week demanded new EU laws to regulate financial institutions more tightly and tackle the financial crisis at European level.

During this Plenary week in Strasbourg, MEPs adopted a resolution on the last week's European leaders summit which called for a coordinated macroeconomic response at European level.

The resolution says that the current crisis has implications going far beyond financial markets and will affect the business viability, employment and personal finance. MEPs require strong EU measures to restore the market stability.

Speaking from the Parliament today, Bill Newton Dunn, Liberal Democrat MEP for the East Midlands said: "It is crucial that there is a continuous access to credit for citizens, SMEs and businesses to avoid the loss of jobs and growth across the East Midlands. Only a coordinated and rapid response at European level can hope to restore confidence in the financial markets."

Last week, the Euro-Zone leaders came together to create an EU solution to the financial crisis problem. Some EU Member States, for instance Ireland and Greece, had already tried their own solutions but soon found that the problem was too big for them to be solved at national level.