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"I predict that over the next decades, we are likely to see two EUs - a core around the eurozone and a periphery, non-eurozone, whose basis of cooperation will be the single market, such as Sweden Denmark, Norway", said Straw. "A further challenge for Europe and much of the West will be the rise of the 'new emergers'. With low income per capita and strong demographics, many states will see dramatic economic growth in the next 20 to 30 years."
"Whatever intellectual scepticism we may harbour about the concept of the euro, it is plainly in the interest of not only the members of the eurozone and other EU Member States, including the UK, but also the world economy, that we strain every muscle to keep the euro area intact", he added.
Straw also emphasised a number of challenges that EU leading countries, such as Germany and France will face, irrespective of the current crisis and would have to be addressed shortly. "Despite current difficulties, however, it is likely, but by no means certain that th EU will pull through its current difficulties, if only because the cost of not doing so would be too high for many states to bear", said Straw.