Former Greek Minister Yanis Varoufakis has rubbished the European Union’s plans for the Euro currency. While speaking to the Economic Research Council in a video chat, Mr Varoufakis dismantled the EU’s longterm economy strategies. He also highlighted the many issues with having austerity policies across the member states.
Mr Varoufakis said: “The ambition by the European authorities to turn the Euro into a competitor of the dollar, it is not going to work.
“It is not going to work for two reasons.
“Firstly, the austerity policies that began in Greece in 2010 were generalised across Europe.
“A general universal austerity stance in fiscal policy created a situation whereby the European Union as a whole and the Eurozone, in particular, has gone from a kind of more or less balanced current account in 2010 and 2011 to a very large current account surplus that is now persistent.
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“It is a result of the austerity fiscal policies.
“When you have got an excess of savings of an investment, as we do in the European Union and have had from 2008/2009, and you drive the average budget to balance then it is a truth of geometry, not a theory, that you are going to force an economy, the Eurozone economy, to go into current account surplus”
Mr Varoufakis has also lashed out at the EU for their plans with the European Budget and warned of growing federalism in the bloc.
In a Twitter post, he wrote: “A Federal Budget is a splendid idea. But it requires a Federal Treasury.
“Europe has the framework for a functioning government.
“What it lacks is the political will to use it.”
The former minister replied: “Are you serious?
“Here is what happened: Merkel and Macron chose Ursula.
“They then told everyone else.”
The European Union dismissed a new proposed election system called the Spitzenkandidat System that would have allowed MEPs to select the next President of the European Commission.
EPP leader Manfred Weber was initially favoured to succeed Jean-Claude Juncker under the system because of his political group traditionally commanding a majority but he was soon bypassed for fellow CDU member Ursula von der Leyen.