Barroso – separate eurozone budget would not create ‘two-speed Europe’

President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso speaks during a news conference on a Blueprint for a deep and genuine economic and monetary union, with Olli Rehn, the Monetary Affairs European Commissioner and European Union Commissioner for Internal Market and Services Michel Barnier, at the European Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, 28 November 2012. EPA/JULIEN WARNAND

EC president Jose Manuel Barroso said the task of creating a seperate budget should be completed within a period from six months to a year and a half, at most.

"We need a deep and genuine Economic and Monetary Union in order to overcome the crisis of confidence that is hurting our economies and our citizens' livelihoods," Barroso has said.

Countries that are not members of the eurozone, including Poland, consider the establishment of this separate budget as a threat to EU unity and further developing what has been termed a “two speed Europe”.

This move would also negatively affect funds for the whole of the EU, Poland argues, as negotiations for the 2014 – 20 drag on after talks ended in stalemate last week.

Jose Manuel Barroso tried to dispel fears voiced by Warsaw, however.

“Poland should not treat this as an attempt to create a two-speed Europe. After all, Prime Minister Donald Tusk declared willingness to join the euro-zone and Poland has been working on this.”

The EC president stressed that a separate budget for the eurozone will help ensure its stability.

At the same time he argued that so-called ‘structural and cohesion funds’, designed to close the gap between richer and poorer nations in the 27 nation bloc, should not be used for financing unscheduled, though urgent, operations such as the meltdown in the Greek economy. (ss/pg)