Obama Asks Euro Leaders to Publicly Discuss Solutions for Economic Crisis
6/19/2012
Official White House Photo by Pete Souza(LOS CABOS, Mexico) -- As expected, the G20 conference came to its close with no bold agreements to resolve the economic crisis in the 17-member eurozone. President Obama said Tuesday that he had urged leaders from the European countries present -- France, Germany, Italy, and the European Union -- to at least provide a public framework as to what they want to happen so that markets and others can calm down and be reassured solutions are coming.
President Obama told reporters that what he had “heard from European leaders during the course of these discussions is that they understand the stakes, they understand why it’s important for them to take bold and decisive action and I’m confident they can meet those tests.”
“Sometimes even after they’ve conceived of approaches to deal with the crisis they have to deal with all the politics to get it done and markets are a lot more impatient,” the president said. “So what I’ve encouraged them to do is to lay out a framework for where they want to go in increasing European integration in resolving the financial pressures that are on sovereign countries, even if they can’t achieve all of it in one fell swoop, I think that if people have a sense of where they’re going that can provide confidence and break the fever.”
Asked if Europe’s failure to rally would cost him re-election, President Obama said, “All these issues, economic issues will potentially have some impact on the election but that’s not my biggest concern right now. My biggest concern is the same concern I’ve had over the last three and a half years, which is folks who are out of work or underemployed or unable to pay the bills, what steps are we taking that potentially put them in a stronger position.”
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio