Analytics, Crisis, Economics, EU – Baltic States, Financial Services, Lithuania

Dalia Grybauskaite in Brussels, 26.10.2011. Photo: president.lt

"The EU decision making process is too slow, the debt settling measures are taken too late and the crisis, as a result, only gets deeper. Europe needs a quicker-acting mechanism for decision making," Grybauskaite said Wednesday.

In order to prevent negligent financial management, according to the president, all instruments at the disposal have to be used to ensure good fiscal discipline, some new measures should be created as well, writes LETA/ELTA.

Final decisions on controlling the eurozone crisis at the informal meeting of the European Council members yesterday were not made due to lack of time, yet, political efforts to solve long-standing problems were present, says Lithuanian Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius. "We cannot stop the Greek crisis or decide for the rich and big countries, we cannot make decisions which should be made by them. We can only prepare ourselves for all possible scenarios. Of course, we expect more positive developments, however, we have to be ready to face worse cases which could affect us as well if the eurozone crisis deepens," the PM said.

According to Kubilius, the most important thing one should do now given the present circumstances is understanding that the difference between income and expenses has to be narrowed, the budget deficit has to be cut and that funding such deficit might turn out to be more difficult than in more stable times. The head of the Government says that Lithuania's budget has been drafted taking into regards all the above-mentioned factors. Kubilius says that the euro depreciation would have a twofold effect. On the one hand, he says, residents' savings in the euros would also lose value, yet, on the other hand, the Lithuanian exports industry would gain a certain competitive advantage due to that.