Her lecture addressed the way EU institutions have been handling the new economic situation and the new “challenges and opportunities” with which they are faced. She drew attention to the strong need for a common approach inside the European Union so as to be able to handle and adapt to the new economic environment but stressed that such a common approach is often very hard to reach.

The crisis had imparted new momentum to the deregulation-reregulation debate inside the EU. In contradiction to the socialist group, Commissioner Charlie McCreevy - responsible for internal market and services – represents a very liberal deregulatory approach and puts more emphasis on strengthening self-regulatory mechanisms of the market. Joaquín Almunia, Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, has been cooperating with the European Central Bank to work out a recovery plan for the EU. However, this recovery plan was not left without criticism. As Ms van den Burg characterised it, it was little more than “vague recommendations”. Moreover, the Commission´s stimulus package was “too little, too late”. The Economic Committee of the EP, as stated in their report on the recovery plan, calls for better coordination among member states and investments. Moreover, the EP has just recently issued initiative reports to the Commission on topics like transparency, hedge funds and better supervision. There is also a dialogue going on in-between the EP and the European Central Bank where, according to Ms van den Burg, the EP plays a very important agenda setter role.