The European Council President, Herman Van Rompuy, presented the results of the December 2010 European Council to MEPs.

As regards economic governance, he welcomed the fact that the European Council had agreed to a limited Treaty revision which will enable the euro-zone Member States to establish a permanent mechanism to maintain the financial stability of the euro-zone.

On international relations, the European Council sent a clear signal to Cote d'Ivoire on the need to respect the electoral results.

The European Commission President, José Manuel Barroso, welcomed the determination shown by the Member States to secure the stability of the EU.

The Parliament’s political groups were, on the other hand, more sceptical about the European Council’s success:

· deploring the political wrangling between Member States, the representatives of the S&D group considered that the summit was again a case of 'too little too late';

· the ALDE group insisted on the need to reassure not only the financial markets but the citizens, which is at present not the case;

· the Chairman of the EPP group stated that more measures needed to be taken to reassure the markets on a structural level by creating favourable growth and employment conditions, which may primarily be achieved by placing national budgets on the right footing. In parallel, he called for more European resources to be made available for employment and invites the Commission to present proposals for such a solution to be found;

· stressing that debt reduction was not the only priority, the Greens stated that debt management must be based on equality and fairness;

· lastly, whilst judging fiscal retrenchment as essential, the ECR representative pleaded for structural reforms based on growth through the EU2020 strategy.

Responding to MEP criticisms, the President of the Commission stated that the debt problem should be resolved before promoting growth. He also argued in favour of structural reform as the only way to sustain Europe's social market economy.

In response to the criticisms by a GUE/NGL member concerning the Irish bailout, Mr Barroso replied that the EU should be seen as part of Ireland's solution and certainly not as the cause of its problem. Listen

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