Italy, UK press case for deeper eurozone fiscal ties

13 August 2011

Britain's finance minister called for some form of fiscal union to resolve the eurozone's debt crisis on Saturday, while his Italian counterpart renewed a call for the introduction of common eurozone bonds.

After more than a year of piecemeal responses to the eurozone's still-expanding debt crisis, some economists and policymakers are making the case for broader changes to how the currency bloc works. UK Chancellor, George Osborne, said deeper integration had been the inevitable conclusion from the start of the single currency project. Speaking on BBC radio he said: "We do have to allow greater fiscal union while protecting our own national interest".

Italian Economy Minister, Giulio Tremonti, also renewed a call for common European bonds on Saturday, saying they would be the best solution for a debt crisis which he said still risked spreading to other countries. Tremonti noted that he and Luxemburg Prime Minister, Jean-Claude Juncker, had long argued in favour of joint eurobonds and he believed the trend was pointing towards closer coordination of fiscal policies.

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