BRUSSELS, Jan 10 (AFP) - Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker urged the Eurogroup of 12 eurozone finance ministers Monday to improve its internal coordination and to foster a closer dialogue with the European Central Bank.
Juncker, who is also his country's finance minister and the Eurogroup's president for the next two-and-a-half years, stressed that he was not challenging the ECB's independence.
"In order to take full advantage of the potential offered by the common currency, members of the eurozone need a stronger coordination of the basic assumptions on which they base their course of action," he wrote in an article published on the European Policy Centre's website.
"At the same time, the dialogue between the Eurogroup and the ECB has to be improved while respecting the prerogatives of both sides."
Juncker said the president of the ECB would continue to be invited to Eurogroup gatherings and that he would continue to attend the meetings of the central bank's governing councils.
This would not however be enough to ensure a constructive dialogue between the two bodies, he added.
"I fully understand the apprehension expressed by some in the ECB regarding the development of the partnership between the Eurogroup and the ECB," Juncker said.
"For my part, I can assure those who are not convinced of the necessity of such a dialogue that I have not fought for the independence of the ECB during the negotiations of the Maastricht Treaty in order to put it into the slightest of doubt as president of the Eurogroup," he said.
"I am confident that together with ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet, with whom I already worked 15 years ago on Economic and Monetary Union, we can put into place a constructive and respectful dialogue between both parents of the euro."
01/10/2005 19:15 GMT - AFP