国际英语新闻:Eurozone FinMins confident on economic resilience

TALLINN, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- Finance ministers of the 19-member eurozone expressed confidence here on Friday in the resilience of the eurozone economy to build new growth.

"In the eurozone, growth keeps picking up, it is set to remain robust, it's broad-based, it's across all our countries. Of course, risks remain and work needs to be done to deal with those risks, but confidence is ever increasing," said Eurogroup president Jeroen Dijsselbloem at a press conference after the Eurogroup conference.

The ministers discussed the lessons learnt from the financial crisis, structural reforms needed at the national level, finishing the banking union, completing the capital markets union, and improving governance and institutional frameworks, both national and European, said Dijsselbloem, who is also minister of finance in the Netherlands.

The ministers also welcomed Greece's proposal to abrogate the excessive deficit procedure, which is expected to be adopted by the European Council later this month, said Dijsselbloem.

Pierre Moscovici, European Commissioner for economic and financial affairs, taxation and customs, said the Greek bailout program would be concluded in a bit less than a year, and that the conclusion must be a full success for Greece and its citizens, as well as for the eurozone as a whole.

"We must ensure that this positive trend and the confidence it feeds be sustainable, durable and reinforced," Moscovici said.

He highlighted the quality of public finances, the taxation system, and the role of education and training to build new growth and make the Euro-area more robust.

Both Benoit Coeure, an executive board member at the European Central Bank (ECB), and Klaus Regling, managing director of the European Stability Mechanism, expressed their confidence in the resilience of the eurozone, calling for hand-in-hand structural reform and a smoother transition.

The Eurogroup conference took place on the first day of the two-day informal meeting of European Union (EU) economic and financial affairs ministers to discuss financial and tax issues related to innovation and the digital economy, which is one of the priorities of the current Estonian Presidency of the Council of the EU, the rotating six-month position the country assumed in July.