国际英语新闻：Barroso says EU faced with five major challenges

The so-called European semester will "allow the economic and budgetary policies of the member states to be monitored in parallel during a six-month period every year, starting in 2011, so as to detect any inconsistencies and emerging imbalances," the ministers said in a statement after their monthly meeting in Brussels.

The ministers also approved a plan to overhaul financial supervision across the EU as a primary reform in the wake of the financial crisis.

The reforms are the key to the EU's economic success and the EU should build an economic union on top of a monetary union, Barroso said.

"We will match monetary union with true economic union," he said. "If implemented as we propose, these reforms will also guarantee the long-term stability of the euro. It is key to our economic success."

The second challenge, Barroso said, is to restore growth for jobs by accelerating the Europe 2020 reform agenda, a strategy designed to guide EU economic development in the next decade.

"We need to get more people in jobs, boost our companies' competitiveness and deepen the single market. I want a European Union that helps its people to seize new opportunities; and I want a Union that is social and inclusive," Barroso said.

The third challenge is to build an area of freedom, justice and security, Barroso said, calling the task "a fundamental dimension of our European project."