Maltese MEP Alfred Sant told the President of the Eurogroup that boosting investment should be aimed at reducing growing disparities amongst EU countries. Dr Sant was speaking during an exchange of views on the Commission's assessment of the economic situation for 2017 at the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) in Brussels with  Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem, Eurogroup President. Dr Sant said that in recent years, not only has the EU objective to close the economic gap between Northern and Southern countries failed, but this gap is ever widening.  

“Thus, in northern countries, we observe budgetary surpluses, a strong welfare state, and almost zero unemployment and poverty, whereas, in southern countries, we observe excessive government deficits and debt, very high unemployment rates, the retreat of the welfare state, and increasing rates of poverty. Divergences can also be observed between eurozone and non-eurozone Member States, where eurozone countries are also bound by the limits of the monetary union.” remarked Dr Sant.

The Eurogroup President agreed with Dr Sant’s comments on the disparities between north and south. “But I think the growth rates throughout the eurozone show that the process is already being turned around. Growth rates in some of the previous programmed countries like Ireland, Spain and Cyprus are now at the highest level. Economic recovery in these countries is ongoing at high growth rates, higher than in the core countries. I do feel that core countries should also be able to achieve higher growth rates. 1% in some of the larger economies in the eurozone is simply not good enough,” remarked Minister Dijsselbloem.

The President of the Eurozone said that the return of the convergence processes actually are beginning to show because there are interesting differences in growth rates and economic dynamics throughout the eurozone.