Britannia Radio

The EU celebrates the 10th birthday of the Euro by a bucketload of 
wishful thinking dished out by Trichet and Juncker  dutifully 
reproduced here by th nominally independent EU Observer together with 
some fallacious asides of of its own.

David McWilliams (Irish Independent,)  suggests that Ireland could 
become the "Iceland inside the Euro" and could  default on its 
"sovereign debt."   If this were to happen he wonders if  Ireland  
could excpect to be rescued by the EU   to stop the  destabilisation 
of the whole euro project.  But then there could also be the other 4 
countries!!!  (Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece.)

xxxxxxxxxxx cs
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EU OBSERVER     14.1.08
Euro marks 10th birthday amid financial crisis
ELITSA VUCHEVA

  BRUSSELS - The financial crisis that started in the US, [Oh NO it 
didn't.  What about the Swiss Bank problems earlier and Northern 
Rock ?  -cs] but progressively spread well beyond its borders, is 
going to present the eurozone economy with new challenges in the 
months to come, EU monetary chiefs warned on Tuesday (13 January) at 
a European Parliament event marking the 10th anniversary of the 
common currency.

"It is no time for complacency. Current challenges are pressing, and 
new challenges will arise," European Central Bank (ECB) president 
Jean-Claude Trichet told MEPs in Strasbourg.

"The crisis has revealed fundamental weaknesses in the global 
financial system.  [It has also exposed the terrible weakness in the 
very concept of the Euro and as a result at least 5 members of the 
eurozone are in deep trouble because of the euro -cs]  We are playing 
an active part in the global efforts to address these weaknesses and 
redesign the regulatory and institutional framework. A lot of work 
remains to be done," he added.

For his part, Jean-Claude Juncker, Luxembourg's prime minister and 
the acting president of the group of countries using the euro, 
stressed that the current year would be particularly difficult for 
the eurozone, as well as a test for its cohesion.

"The real test for the cohesion of the eurozone is still facing us ...
2009 is going to be an extremely difficult year for the eurozone and 
its citizens," and there will both internal and external challenges 
to face, the eurogroup chairman said.

Internally, EU governments will have to increase their co-operation 
to limit the effects of the crisis and "build a bridge to the after-
crisis."
Externally, "we will have to learn the political lessons of the 
international political and economic crisis" and work on an "in-depth 
reform of the financial system," he added.

The eurozone was launched on 1 January 1999 and initially covered 11 
countries: Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, 
Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain. Greece met 
the convergence criteria in 2000 and joined in January 2001.

After Slovenia entered the euro club in 2007 and Malta and Cyprus 
followed suit a year later, Slovakia on 1 January became the 16th 
state - and the first one from central Europe - to adopt the euro.
Some 330 million Europeans are today using the common currency.

Bastion of stability
The EU monetary chiefs called the euro "one of the greatest success 
stories of European integration" saying that it had allowed the 
countries using it to react effectively to the global crisis.  [This 
is totally untrue = ask the finance ministers in Portugal, Spain, 
Italy, Greece or Ireland -cs]
Mr Juncker called the euro an "anchor of stability" and an 
"unquestionable success," while Mr Trichet told EU parliamentarians: 
"If we had not had a common currency, then we would not have been 
able to act as quickly and as effectively."  [It gets worse by the 
day with Germany in dire straits - cs]
"We can be proud of the prompt response of Europe [to the crisis]," 
he added.

Joaquin Almunia, the EU's economic and monetary affairs commissioner, 
also underlined the European currency's merits and highlighted its 
"deserved reputation for strength and stability."

However, Mr Juncker reiterated his complaint about eurozone countries 
lacking common international representation and always looking to 
their national interests first.

"Despite significant progress, the international representation of 
the euro is still often too fragmentary and national interests too 
often take precedence over the common interest that we have," he said.

"The Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) is an economic project, but a 
political project as well. Consequently, we will need to 
[efficiently] use the second decade of the euro to perfect the EMU" 
by strengthening it politically, he concluded