Europe is set to ramp up economic surveillance to prevent a repeat of the region's recent debt crisis, European Central Bank Executive Board member Juergen Stark said on Monday.

Writing in a column in the Financial Times Stark rebuffed the idea that inaction had cost Europe dear during the recent problems. The idea of Euro-paralysis is another illusion, Stark said.

He backed new measures being drawn up by a task force under the control of European Union President Herman Van Rompuy, to fix current policy problem areas.

A new framework for macroeconomic surveillance will monitor whether national trends are compatible with those that are appropriate for the Union as a whole.

This framework will allow both targeted peer pressure and differentiated and more binding recommendations on follow-up action at the national level, Stark said.

(Reporting by Marc Jones; Editing by John Stonestreet)

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