Noonan welcomes leaders’ plan to tackle euro crisis

FINANCE Minister Michael Noonan welcomed plans for a collective economic government, announced by the French and German leaders yesterday, which he said reaffirms their “absolute determination” to defend the euro.

The formation of a common eurozone government has moved a step closer after the leaders of the euro area’s two biggest economies called for “true economic governance”.

Following a meeting in Paris yesterday — which was designed to shore up market confidence in the eurozone — French president Nicolas Sarkozy and German chancellor Angela Merkel said much closer economic and fiscal policy was now needed among member states.