Budgetary policies must continue to be responsible; the reforms already decided and those still to be implemented should be set within a comprehensive design and the aims clearly defined. Monetary policy will sustain the recovery. On 4 July the ECB Governing Council announced that monetary conditions would continue to be accommodative for as long as necessary.
Despite European Union’s announcement of significant policy actions during December 2011, the financial markets continued to reel under stress in the backdrop of rating downgrade of European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF) and nine euro area countries by S&P, of which four were downgraded by two notches.