ITALIAN PRIME MINISTER Mario Monti said today that the end of the tunnel was in sight for Italy and the European Union, after the European Central Bank and eurozone leaders pledged to save the euro.
“We and the rest of Europe are getting closer to the end of the tunnel. There’s light at the end of the tunnel,” Monti said in an interview with the Radio Anch’io programme on Rai Radio ahead of a meeting in Paris with France’s President Francois Hollande.
“The decisions we took … on 29 and 29 June are very important (and) … now we are seeing the consequences, in terms of greater willingness on the part of European institutions and governments” to put them into action, he said.
The key to surviving the crisis “is the implementation without delay of the decisions taken in Brussels,” he added, referring to what was described at the time as a “breakthrough” June 28-29 summit.
The meeting with Hollande Tuesday will be Monti’s first stop on a mini-European tour which he hopes will help “secure the euro and give a decisive boost to European growth,” he told the state-owned public broadcaster.
After Paris, Monti will travel to Helsinki and Madrid. He is expected in Berlin and The Hague later this month.
Debt-laden Italy’s worrying borrowing costs eased at a bond sale on Monday after promises from German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Hollande, Monti and the ECB to do everything in their power to save the eurozone.
Despite increasing concern among investors over Italy’s future following a general election scheduled for April next year, Monti refused to be drawn on whether he can be convinced by supporters to stand for prime minister.
“I am consciously tuning out that question,” he told the interviewer.
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