BERLIN (Reuters) – Any reduction in the euro zone would exact a significant toll on the region’s economy, the president of the European Commission warned on Wednesday, as he urged Germany to show leadership in solving Europe’s escalating debt crisis
Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, in a speech in Berlin urged EU governments to ensure that reforming the 17-member euro zone does not come at the price of creating new divisions among member states.
“The idea that we have two unions in Europe means disunion,” Barroso said.
“There cannot be peace and prosperity in the North or in the West of Europe if there is no peace and prosperity in the South or in the East,” he said.
Barroso argued that all EU member states should strive to adopt the euro and any reforms of the single currency area should not result in new conditions for joining.
“All EU states should have the euro as its currency,” he said. “The challenge is how to further deepen euro area integration without creating divisions with those who are not yet in it.”
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has advocated a two-speed Europe in which euro zone countries accelerate and deepen integration while an expanding group outside the currency bloc stays more loosely connected — a signal that some members may have to quit the euro if the entire structure is not to crumble.
via EU’s Barroso warns about cost of splitting euro zone – chicagotribune.com.
