The European Commission is preparing options for the introduction of eurobonds, its president José Manuel Barroso said this morning addressing the European Parliament in Strasbourg. He called for much closer political integration and said the EU needed a "new federalist moment" to confront the most serious challenge for the bloc in a generation. Mr Barroso portrayed the current crisis as an existential threat to the European project. "This is a fight for the jobs and prosperity of families in all our member states.”

“This is a fight for the economic and political future of Europe. This is a fight for what Europe represents in the world. This is a fight for European integration itself," he said. Mr Barroso confirmed the commission would soon present options for the creation of common euro area bonds - a path opposed by Germany - as a way out of current crisis.

Some of these options could be implemented within the terms of current EU treaty, but others would require changes to the EU's founding charter. "The only right way to stop the negative cycle and to strengthen the euro is to deepen integration, namely within the euro area," he said. While the commission would put forward the eurobond options, Mr Barroso cautioned that this would not bring an immediate solution. Rather, it needed to be one element in a "comprehensive approach to further economic and political integration."

Read the Irish Times for more: http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2011/0914/breaking10.html

Nigel Farage comments after Barrosso's presentation: http://www.asymptotix.eu/content/nigel-farage-greece-under-commission-ecb-imf-dictatorship-14-september-2011