BRUSSELS: European companies urged euro zone leaders on Monday to commit quickly to a fiscal union, the creation of a European Monetary Fund and future joint debt issuance and called on the European Central Bank to intervene in bond markets to stabilise the euro.
"Euro area leaders need to give greater urgency to decisive actions which can safeguard the euro.
Leaders need to strengthen the overall architecture of the monetary union, including providing a commitment to budgetary union," lobby group BusinessEurope, which represents 20 million firms, said in a statement.
In a letter to the chairman of European Union summits, Herman Van Rompuy, BusinessEurope said companies were making every effort to sustain employment and investment despite the growing uncertainty created by the sovereign debt crisis.
"We need to use all short-term means to support the euro," BusinessEurope said in the letter ahead of the Dec. 9 summit of EU leaders that is to discuss a way towards a fiscal union.
"The ECB should continue to assist financial stability by both providing liquidity to the banking sector and, for a limited period of time until other means are in place, engaging in sovereign debt markets to the extent it believes necessary to stabilise the euro," the letter said.
European politicians hope that if they send a clear signal at the end of this week of willingness to submit national budgets to tough scrutiny by EU institutions, the ECB would step up its purchases of bonds from countries like Spain and Italy to give them time to reform without being cut off from markets.
ECB President Mario Draghi hinted last week the bank might consider some kind of action if policymakers agree on a "fiscal compact" for the single currency area.
BusinessEurope said the euro zone's future permanent bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism, should be developed into a politically independent European Monetary Fund open to all EU 27 member states.
The ESM is to replace the temporary European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) in mid-2013, but euro zone leaders are considering the possibility of bringing it forward to mid-2012.
Such a European Monetary Fund, once in place, could issue euro zone bonds, BusinessEurope suggested.
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