The text of David Cameron's speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos:
We meet today at a perilous moment for economies right across Europe. Growth has stalled. Unemployment is rising. The prospect of Europe getting left behind is all too apparent.
While China grows at 8%, India at 7% and Africa at 5.5%, the European Commission forecasts the EU will grow by just 0.6 per cent in the whole of 2012 – and even that is assuming the problems in the Eurozone get better not worse.
Yesterday in Britain we had the official figures for the final quarter of last year – and they were negative. Other large economies of Europe are forecast to have a similar outcome.
In just four years Government debt per EU citizen has risen by 4,500 euros. Foreign direct investment has fallen by around two-thirds. And in more than half of EU Member States, a fifth of all young people are now out of work. So this is not a moment to try and pretend there isn’t a problem.
Nor is it a moment to allow the fear of failure to hold us back. This is a time to show the leadership our people are demanding.
Tinkering here and there and hoping we’ll drift to a solution simply won’t cut it any more. This is a time for boldness not caution.
Boldness in what we do nationally – and together as a continent.
In Britain we’ve had to be bold.