WSJ: Support grows for new EU Treaty to boost fiscal ties in eurozone

12 September 2011

The push for a new European Union treaty giving the eurozone greater fiscal integration got a significant boost over the weekend after UK finance chief, George Osborne, acknowledged he had discussed the matter with his European counterparts, and said a new treaty was likely in the next two years.

Support for the negotiation of a new treaty has gained considerable momentum in the past week, with German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet, Luxemburg's premier Jean-Claude Juncker, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel all saying greater fiscal union would require a treaty change.

"It's on the cards that a treaty change may be proposed", Mr Osborne said on the sidelines of the weekend's meeting here of finance ministers of the G7 leading developed economies. "This would be to further integrate the eurozone, further strengthen fiscal integration. I have said there is a remorseless logic from monetary union to fiscal union, and it's in Britain's interests that the eurozone is stable."

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