adminMADRID. — French President Francois Hollande was due in Spain yesterday for a bilateral summit seeking a common stance on banking supervision to avoid a repeat of the eurozone debt crisis. Hollande is pushing for European authorities to adopt common measures to prevent costly bank failures and to directly recapitalise lenders in difficulty.
Having won backing from Italy’s Prime Minister Enrico Letta last week, Hollande is now looking to bring Spanish premier Mariano Rajoy on board, French officials said.
The push for closer EU banking supervision was largely driven by Spain’s woes last year, when it was forced to accept an emergency credit line from its eurozone partners to save its financial sector from collapse.
Hollande is expected to reiterate his call for European Union countries “to make jobs growth and stability the heart of their decisions” at their summit next month.
France and Spain were due to discuss economic growth at the summit, with Hollande looking for support to boost investment capacity and pro-growth policies across the eurozone, officials said.
Growth is a major concern for Spain, the eurozone’s fourth-biggest economy, which has just crawled timidly out of two years of recession with 0,1 percent growth in the third quarter of this year. — AFP.
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