British minister: euro is burning building with no exits

  • 12/15/2022
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London, Dhu-AlQa'dah 1, 1432, Sep 29, 2011, SPA -- Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague has compared the eurozone to a "burning building with no exits" and alleged that Germans would have to subsidise weaker members such as Greece for "the rest of their lifetimes.", dpa reported. Hague, a known eurosceptic, made his outspoken comments in a conservative news magazine Thursday - the day the German parliament was set to vote on an expansion of the European bailout mechanism. The euro, claimed Hague, would become an "historical monument to collective folly," according to the Spectator magazine. Hague pointed out that his analogy between the euro and a "burning building" was a repeat of a view he expressed as long ago as 1998, when he was Conservative opposition party leader, campaigning for Britain to keep its own currency. "I described the euro as a burning building with no exits and so it has proved for some of the countries in it. But there are no exits," he said. "I might take the analogy too far but the euro wasn't built with exits so it is very difficult to leave it," he explained in the latest interview. He said that "Greeks, or Italians or Portuguese have to accept some very big changes in what happens in their country, even bigger than if they weren't in the euro, and Germans will have to accept that they are going to subsidise those countries for a long time to come really, for the rest of their lifetimes." His remarks came amid growing pressure on Prime Minister David Cameron from anti-European parliamentarians to review Britain's EU membership and hold a referendum. --SPA 11:35 LOCAL TIME 08:35 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/929675

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