as. in the near future i suspect that they they can and hobble through to the election but things could deteriorate and get even worse and in the meantime i see be the greek situation as a tragedy because so much of what has happened could have been prevented if europe were truly an integrated unity if the same steps said and taken on the fiscal side that is the public spending and tax side as were taken ten years ago on the monetary side so that there were there were it would be true. fiscal integration true centralization of fiscal policy. the. public debt problems that we see in greece but we also see spain italy number of other countries would have

automatically have been solved by by virtue of having a centralized europe according to me reports three billion in cash was withdrawn from greek banks. since last election in may and that's nearly two percent of all cash greek band tax banks hold how sustainable is that well clearly such transfers that counts can't go on indefinitely without there being. a banking collapse but that's that's again. a failure of. of europe look at what happened in the united states a few years ago during the financial crisis the federal government stepped in and bailed the banks out and partially nationalize them. europe could have taken similar steps and greece and and did not do so spanish banks

bankia has requested the biggest spill out in spanish banking history and have the spanish banks all soak up the already sure spain has had. some real problems too. and while they have whether or not nearly. as serious trouble as as greece it's. it's bad and the austerity program there has has only made things worse but just how much financial power. to national and the e.u. authorities have to support spain in countries that are in similar situation like italy for example if they wanted. to. exercise more power on the level of the of the union they could do it there are lots of things

that could be done to either as the fiscal problem in spain and portugal one good idea which has been proposed which i hope will be adopted at some point is the idea of euro bonds to translates private debts and. or of national debts and so. european debts some fund managers are openly right now dumping the here assets and it's no surprise that it's running really logans dollar. but is dollar a safe bet at this point i mean america itself has a huge gap and it's government up six its g.d.p. the dollar has always been a safe haven at times of economic uncertainty and i think it will continue to be a safe haven for for many years to come yes there is a. debt problem in the u.s.

in the sense that it's the debt to g.d.p. ratio is higher than it normally is and that it's. if you extrapolate going for the current situation going forward. it looks as though the jet g.d.p. . debt to g.d.p. ratio will actually. continue to increase but in fact. the seriousness of this problem has been exaggerated so you don't look at it as a crisis i look at it as as a problem but as a fixable problem and not a problem that has to be solved immediately by any means like i think a much more important problem in the united states is to get the economy back to normal form that the still running out of something like eight percent which is

too high the first priority should be getting the economy back to normal and then to worry about. about solving the long term debt problem we're talking about the ratings agencies i mean how much have they contribute to worsening the crisis because from what i understand and i may be wrong these are independent entities they have owners they trade stock markets why are they allowed to have so much power over the global economy i don't know that they do have so much power anymore i think that they did play a role several years ago this whole sequence of events started in the united states with what was called the subprime mortgage crisis and the rating agencies played a role in making the subprime mortgage problem worse by overstating the the safety of investing in subprime mortgages by now.

i think we've learned to take what these rating agencies say with with less seriousness that was true. which isn't to say that they have no effect but i but i don't think that they have nearly the. power that they had a few years ago but you think they have contributed to worsening the crisis a little sure a little bit for example last summer. you'll remember that there was a somewhat artificial debt ceiling crisis in the u.s. and this led to a downgrading of u.s. debts. for a pull a two to double i. that didn't do the crisis any favor that there were

there with there were some temporary turbulence as a result of that i don't think in the long run. it did. serious damage but it would but it was not. it was certainly not a positive step to ask you something if let's say two three men four years ago someone would have sat that you were really facing a crisis of this scale probably people would laugh in your face like no of course not do you think do you think scholars missed something or is it just that the world economy the model of the world economy is running low and it's out of battery and just unable to deliver growth now i actually i don't think this crisis was missed i mean. the financial crisis of way. was was something of a surprise to many economists but the problem with europe were not at all miss that

there were many economists many prominent economists who pointed out at the founding of the monetary union beginning at the last decade that there was a serious asymmetry between the way monetary policy and fiscal policy were being handled that monetary policy was centralized in the european central bank that fiscal policy was not centralized that in the long run this asymmetry was not sustainable so. it was not a big surprise where when the problems. the problems that this asymmetry generated actually. came to reality in a couple of years ago leaving the euro doesn't really come with a guidebook but you're really good at game theory how does that actually happened how does a country leave a carrot currency. how does that happen they'll have to adopt they'll have to

either go back to the drachma or adopt the dollar or adopt some other currency these things have happened before countries have changed currency and it's usually a somewhat bumpy process it's very rarely a smooth transition and it's not expected to be smooth in this case especially with volatile people like in greece right. but but it can happen how rough can it get really if that happens it could be very bad for for greece like well like civil war revolution well. again you're asking me to make political predictions it could get very much worse economically. i mean. greece could go on. into

a long term depression unemployment could grow to astronomical heights it's already very high but it could it could certainly get higher. the. things are by no means currently as bad as they as they could get where do you think greece will be in one year's time from now this is a question which we don't know the answer to because it it depends so much. on politics i think at this point given what has happened it's more likely. i'll be watching r.t. brachy had an interview there with eric mascot in taking you live now to the twenty ninth pressure e.u. summit the wrap up meeting there president vladimir putin is there also jose manuel barroso and haven't been run poit this is their wrap up conference lesson to what they've got to say we face the same challenges especially in economic and financial

fields. it requires rep it card in a showing of approaches to the solving very similar tasks i think my colleagues will agree that during the summit we managed to prove the priority of character. of russian and e.u. strategic partnership a common understanding of necessity to move forward. for us. to achieve a situation where the citizens of russia and e.u. would practically feel our advantages of our partnership we informed our colleagues on developing an integration process in the territory of c.i.s. . but from that point a few of their. perspective for russian e.u. relations were convinced that you know a. single economic space in which your relation future

generation economic union is absolutely compatible with the tasks of strengthening of operation between russia and e.u. of course it was really important to discuss during the preparation of a new. preparation of a new basic agreement between russia and e.u. from there to size the. interest was proved interest in developing a document where the strategic goals will be formulated and adequate that would be adequate to the needs of today's main stumbling stone become is the. anomic because. of this agreement we agreed to continue informal consultation is an order to. find new surely beneficial solutions we consider the possibilities in trade and economic cooperation and that will work in the context of for joining to w t o l we discussed how it. can be used for the development of

our trade and to take anomic links in order to settle the problem of issues that still exist i would like to stress our gratitude to european union and the european commission for a. great year its support of russia in the process of joining w t o obviously we discussed you the problems you took achieve in visa free regime of action for travelling between russia and e.u. they exist and visa barriers is an obstacle to the development of humanitarian context and economy we also analyze how the joint initiative a partnership for modernization is being implemented we will go on working in order to achieve a number of large joint processes with the participation of russian and e.u. businesses with the participation of followed by national situations. given in mind

the agreements that we have already achieved between our large financial and it's a very big part of our plenary session worse aimed at our energy partnership one of the key. base explore our basis for our relations in a kind of the field steel we have we are questions that require further discussion and settlement but in the context of important. region of time proved corporation between russia and e.u. we are looking forward to achieve mutually acceptable solutions. one more trouble problem was discussed unilateral decision or free you. from the first genera of two thousand and twelve european system of trade for emission quotes on civil aviation so the third countries were discussed the humanitarian issues. of the dialogue russia only view and the most talk

a call for questions of international and regional agenda. so. this is satiation in syria iran middle east and in a number of other territories. which are. so cold like to stress once again that the discussion we had today was pretty full productive. but of this lee not all the positions are the same but but i think that we proved our determination to the to this course interests and sharp political signal to always strengthen in what copulation now we have to move with the same speed forward i want to thank our partners and the experts who did a lot in order to prepare our today's meeting thank you for your attention. to mr president thank you for your hospitality it has been

a pleasure to have been tried to tear through these beautiful place christina g'sjert british will. this is my first summit with you mr president but this my understanding that we even. at the twenty ninth e.u. russia southern half of our joint commitment to develop russia's strategic partnership. as you all know the results of the two last years mockable the russian w t o accession the partnership of madonna's vision and the common steps toward a visa free travel the e.u. russia relationship is enjoying its best identities for years however that is still much we need to do we all do and that what is potentially possible strong political will and hot work with will be needed even in the coming years i therefore welcome president clinton's commitment to bringing this work for the together with european

you. would have talks on the all grow by that real agenda and overload issues such as the economy and some of the more pressing international issues i would like to highlight the following points first on the economy for your up these are testing times but good driven by clear commitment a clear that i mean mission to work our way through the challenges we are aiming at swing getting growth in the european union that are many initiatives in the making and we will take fodor this edition for growth and jobs and you at european council in june. we are also addressing systemic challenges for the economic and monetary union as such we must strengthen the monetary union by more banking fiscal economic integration and in hans' governance and democratic accountability i working on building blocks for the

deepening of economic and monetary union in close cooperation would president of the european commission every quarter do a pin council in july. let me be clear that is no way by for the euro that is only the way i had to do was more integration we want wide awake greece to stay in the your toes those wide respecting its commitments. second tony a you russia might not prudish i'm sure we're dead the best basis for close of partnership should be an ambitious and comprehensive by not a new agreement that includes trade and invest in this context we look forward to that other peckish and of russians w t o x session. the idea of where you are asian economic union is based is based on the rules could lead to positive contribution to j prosperity and cooperation so do you want to be

a spot in its mobility session and that's why i see the photo development of the bottom ship form of the new station as one of the priorities in our relations it should be a partnership that co-host all aspects of modern ization the economy society and the rule i made a point today that if i've been so civil society should in this respect be seen as an intact root for evil than a station too great that engagement of civil society opens up with two of these would afford the relevance of political institutions and the realism in russia which would not be missed civil society was a force of progress in our own history and take them the one in your seat in russia . for free savvy revenge or public gold each of contact between people of the backbone of close relations and benefits for all us i def a welcome to active walk on the implementation of the so called common steps and

the progress made in the negotiations on an upgrade e.u. russia fish in the nation agreement. five one human rights it is welcomed that russia shows readiness for public debate on human rights as they come to tried by the recent hearing in the russian state duma this is a recognition that human rights from so out of metal died occurrence of all and that is why these issues together with the rule of law and use of missions of political rights new need to be addressed with invited russia's in the next round of the e.u. russia human rights conservation that you just do wrestles to twenty national june next time you hope for russia to hope the culture of nations and finally we had some good discussions on the range of foreign policy issues on syria let me first say that the situation is appalling the syrian regime should immediately cease all forms of violence and provides for or to do u.n. supervision mission you know being union and russia might have some divergent s.s.

means but before you agree that i'm not as a hold provides the best opportunity to break this cycle of violence in syria avoiding a civil war and finding a peaceful lost and solution we need to combine our efforts you know look for dish to happen and find common messages on which we agree we need to walk towards an immediate stop of all forms of pines in syria and what's process of political transition the new round we agree on the urgent need to prevent iran from acquiring nuclear weapons the e.u. and russia are working closely together and we call the part. as on this issue i would look forward to the next round of talks in moscow where they will hire a present if cathy ashton will lead the negotiations of six countries would you rather. as regards our common neighborhood directorate to do you should course for

the sovereignty and entire in that it totally integrity of georgia and we believe that the agreement of the commitments of two dozen they should be fully implemented lastly the e.u. welcomes russia's constructive approach in the five through a negotiation in the transmission of your contract mr president it has been a pleasure to have attended this constructive meeting i look forward to see you in brussels next i like. to. thank your president put in. the same space and on the valar to thank president putin for you as warm welcome here in the sand beaches for religion. always velour the frank and open dialogue with president putin and indeed we had this kind of dial during this summit. i believe it is particularly appropriate that we hold this european union russia

summit still worley in the beginning of the mandate of the president of russia and also in the beginning of a new. russia and europe are experiencing important political economic and social transformations a new cycle is opening and these officers do paternity to look ahead and things to ted's hugo to be on our cooperation what we want to achieve and where we want to be . five years time further ahead. in recent years we have made significant progress on a number of issues namely. agreement for russia's your accession and objective that is you know the opinion. union and you can commission have always supported there was also some progress on vis mobility and on our partnership for the night vision there for the purpose of this summit was to contradict the

progress of chiefs and to launch the basis for a closer cooperation last evening we had a very comprehensive exchange of views on the global economic situation the latest developments in russia and in europe let me and gives regard just mention our full confidence in the future of the euro area and of the european union in fact the debate now in european union is not how you are going to do the integration the old integrate these are you going to further deepen the integration to complement our monetary union we full economic union including in some areas like the banking sector supervision and also in some fiscal aspects so no one should be in any doubt there is absolute determination in debian union and in the euro area to. euro and to solve the duty and

further integration of all our efforts and i think this is important for russia because russia is our largest neighbor and are very close to it as a partner we should build upon i was strong ties and advanced negotiations of the new comprehensive view russia agreement to be true to cover all relevant areas of partnership including trade investment and energy and lay the basis of a close relation i am convinced that with a firm commitment of both sides we will achieve a balance and an agreement it will be bulls beneficial for greece for i'm sorry for russia and. for the european union. european union is already russia's biggest commercial partner accounting for around fifty percent of all russian trade it's also the biggest source of foreign direct investment you putin is the biggest

client of the most important exports from russia i mean energy and russia is the bureau accession opens additional produce for trade and for the development of our economic relations we believe this can be very important for the future of office you probably know as vision is now in a phase of full implementation and i'm happy to say that president putin sees it as a priority russia using the gauge in a very important process and we are very proud to be partners of russia in that regard building a partnership between all societies means also and having closer relationship between our peoples this is why visa issue and mobility issues are so important we are now engaged in the implementation of the common steps towards the three drivel that we have launched last i mean. we will come to substantial progress made in the

us stations on an upgraded you rush or visa waiver agreement which should be finalized soon positive developments in these fields have clear potential benefits for our citizens and for people to people contacts on energy we welcome the progress in the energy dialogue and the close you russia energy partnership i stressed that the reliable transparent rules based energy framework remains a key priority for european union so this summit has confirmed them porton the common interest we share and our willingness to build stronger relations and work even closer together as the most famous russian forwards alexander push came west that lived and died and sent pizzas. once wrote that quote we can try and fight it but we should not fail to try european union is looking forward to try not to fight it looking forward to try and to succeed and

i'm sure we'll succeed in this partnership with russia i thank you for it and. was in madrid many fishes was much deserve it should be to approach it with the english general no it's now we can ask lightning two questions each i will start with the international goal she like to give the floor first to the correspondent of don't jones and the wall street journal. iris the bush really dull jones newswires wall street journal two questions. for president bedroom with there's been a lot of work going into forming a banking union towards promoting lending to banks. in your opinion what happens if these important steps are not successful with the with the survival of the year old be at risk. the second question as to what's a bit of

a. special. you know this in the russian middle is what you distinguish. today in the hotel. the pool where they should kremlin those who were stayed overnight. they gave us the bullet and is used to spell it out of the following year the chip will know it to the russian. next it's a year to put a hundred so the position i was. in the prisons and concentration camps like on the will of this man and. you put him should be in prison. and should be ashamed. what's your response to that thank you. it should. progress that well. but in the regards he was you to this so called political prisoners in washington when you.