Speech by President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy at the European Parliament (Brussels, 5 November 2013)

A number of subjects featured at this European Council, some long-planned, others in response to more recent events, have been treated by the European Council two weeks ago.

Above all, what our meeting showed again is that we have left the existential crisis of the euro behind us, and that we can now devote all our energy to the wider economic challenges of consolidating the short-term recovery and strengthening our policies and tools for the future.

Consolidating recovery includes first and foremost the follow-up of measures we agreed earlier in the year, to finance the economy, to fight youth unemployment, to strengthen structural economic growth, to deepen the single market and to combat fragmentation. Our competitiveness agenda continues with the same determination.

Particularly crucial is our continued resolve to fight youth unemployment. Leaders want to ensure the Youth Employment Initiative, an important element of our multiannual financial framework, fully operational by January. Already last year, EU funds helped 800,000 young people enter the workplace. From next year, with the national youth guarantees, we're set to do more. But we're not there yet – and I expect serious efforts. All sides will need to be working around the clock if we want to have the first programmes and the MFF support-funding ready by the end of the year. Much rests on work in the member states, and I hope this month's Youth Employment Conference in Paris will also give an extra push.

Help for small and medium-sized businesses was another element of following up on our June decisions. – We agreed to significantly increase support from the European Structural and Investment Funds to financial instruments for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises – at least doubling it in countries where lending through loan-guarantees to SMEs is most needed. We insisted this money must be leveraged, and fast, so that every euro invested can result in up to 5 or 6 euros of new loans for SMEs.

Cutting down paperwork and simplifying EU law should also be of help for SMEs. The Commission has already identified new steps to make the EU regulatory framework lighter and fit for purpose, as part of its REFIT programme, and we all agreed it's important to continue with this, and revert to it annually, without, however, sacrificing essential protections for consumers, workers or the environment.

Strengthening our tools for the future also means finalising and adopting, during this legislative period, vital elements for our Banking Union, not least the Single Resolution Mechanism for which your Parliament's input and approval will be key. We cannot afford delay. The European Council reaffirmed its support for proceeding in accordance with the agreed deadlines. This is simply a matter of credibility.

The Single Supervisory Mechanism you adopted last month will be up and running a year from now. During the European Council, we heard from President Draghi about the bank balance sheet assessment the ECB will be overseeing between now and then. This is an important exercise, for which governments must plan well in time, with coordinated and appropriate arrangements, including national backstops. Here too it's a matter of credibility. In the meeting, the members of the European Council supported this exercise. It is vital to ensure that our banks are sound and able to help finance our economic recovery.

Beyond the Banking Union, we must keep the momentum on our roadmap for deeper Economic and Monetary Union, set out in the report of the four Presidents. This time, we looked at ways to further strengthen economic policy coordination and we especially discussed the monetary union's social dimension, making sure that we better take into account employment and other social policies. In December, work will continue. We will then take decisions on the main features of contractual arrangements and of associated solidarity mechanisms.

This European Council also paid particular attention to strengthening structural economic growth, in line with our competitiveness agenda. After discussing "energy" in May, and before industrial policy in next December and February, this meeting discussed a vital subject for Europe's economic future: the digital economy and innovation.

If we are serious about the single market, it has to go digital. At the moment it is still fragmented, our infrastructure soon outdated, businesses are struggling to recruit the IT specialists they need. To turn the situation around, we made pledges in three fields: