The President of the European Commission (EC), Jose Manuel Barosso, has recently said that “all the EU countries should adopt euro as their currency”, this being an obligation noted in the treaties.  The official considers that any effort for a close integration of the economic policy shouldn’t come with new divergences between the EU member states. “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,”, the President of the EC said, quoted by Reuters.

The EC has recently warned that Europe is facing the risk of a new recession, as the recovery of its economy has stopped. GDP in the EU is now projected to stagnate until well into 2012, while growth for the whole of 2012 is forecast at about 0.5 percent. By 2013, a return to slow growth of about 1.5 percent is expected. Fiscal consolidation is forecast to progress with public deficits set to decline to just above 3 percent by 2013 under an assumption of unchanged policies, the EC has announced. See the entire EC statement here.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com

(photo source: European Commission)