LISBON, Jan 3: Investors no longer think there is a risk that the eurozone could break up, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said in Lisbon on Thursday, while acknowledging that the situation in Europe remained “difficult.”

Barroso hinted that the European Commission might be prepared to relax some of the targets set for countries in trouble to restructure their economies. Barroso, a former prime minister of Portugal, told a seminar for Portuguese diplomats that 2012 had ended on a “positive note” for the EU.

“I think it is fair to say that the perception of risk in the eurozone has disappeared,” he said.

“Investors have understood that when European leaders commit themselves to doing everything to safeguard the integrity of the euro, they mean business,” he said. But the situation in Europe remained “difficult”, notably because unemployment was expected to be high in 2013.

Programmes to correct the economies of the several EU countries were having a recessionary effect even though the measures created the conditions for firm medium and long-term growth, Barroso said.—AFP