ECONOMY

Europe suffers support, reforms fatigue

European Union Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said on Thursday that support for bailouts is waning in central and northern Europe while some southern countries are struggling to persevere with reforms.

?We have a kind of support fatigue in central and northern Europe — in Germany, in Finland, in the Netherlands, in many other countries — while we have a certain kind of reform fatigue in some countries of southern Europe,? Rehn told a conference in Brussels.

?Our key task is how do you build bridges between these different political views inside Europe so that you are not strangled with numerous red lines which make decision-making impossible in the times of crisis,? he said.

?So far, we have been able to take decisions at the critical moments, but one cannot take that for granted.?

Separately, Rehn also said that knowledge of the European economy is one useful qualification for any candidate to succeed Dominique Strauss-Kahn as head of the International Monetary Fund.

“It is essential that the managing director of the IMF will be chosen based on merit and competence,» said the EU?s top economic official. «It is a merit if the person to be chosen for this task has knowledge of the European economy.”

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