Barroso: European way-of-life at risk

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso told the European Parliament that Europe has to engage in economic reforms with a sense of urgency if it’s to protect it’s way of life. SOUNDBITE José Manuel Durão BARROSO President of the European Commission , in ENGLISH “Europe today faces a choice. Hoping for a return of the good old days is no option. One option is limited change, the lowest common denominator which brings some reform and some growth, but we could never get back what we lost in the crisis. This option would result in a Europe in the second class of the new global order. Minimum changes, some form of adaptation. We can and must be more ambitious. We can aspire to an economic strategy that puts Europe on the path to competitiveness that can create millions of new jobs. But this cannot be done by half measures and incremental change. We need to instil a sense of urgency, a recognition that “business as usual” will not protect our European way of life, will not defend our social model, on the contrary, that this will put it at risk”.