EU URGENTLY NEEDS AN INDEPENDENT RATING AGENCY, SAYS SCHULZ

including the creation of an independent European agency, to offset the dominant positions of Fitch, Standard and Poor and Moody's.

Mr Schulz told a press conference in Strasbourg: "I am in favour of an independent rating agency whose financing is not dependent on the economic interests of those requesting the rating. I expect clear and ambitious proposals from the European Commission."

Referring to last week's incident over Standard and Poor downgrading France, with the agency apologising for a mistake, Mr Schulz said: "It is not a credit rating agency but a discredit rating agency." He rejected the right of the agency to "give a thumbs up or down on the fate of the second biggest economy in the eurozone." In other circumstances, he added, "the economist responsible for the rumour would have been dismissed for such a mistake."