Finance ministers from the European Union (EU) on Friday boasted the stronger economic recovery in the 25-nation trading bloc and seek ways to enhance competitiveness in globalized world.

"This year is shaping well in the EU," Austrian Finance Minister Karl-Heinz Grasser, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency,told a press conference.

"The economic cycle is improving. We have a gradual upswing which is very good for all our economies," he added.

The EU's executive European Commission now predicts that growth in the bloc this year will rise to 2.1 percent from a poor 1.6 percent in 2005.

Grasser urged his counterparts to seize the "good economic condition" to consolidate their budgets and speed up structural reforms, which would enhance the competitiveness of the EU.

Grasser also said that the EU's stability and growth pact had gained new credibility following the application of excessive deficit procedures against some big countries such as Germany, France and Italy.

"It showed that large and small countries were all treated equally under the fiscal rules," he added.

Source: Xinhua