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The 19 countries sharing the euro are debating how to connect
their economies more closely to reap the benefits of scale and
better face any future economic crisis after Britain leaves the
EU at the end of March 2019.
Among the ideas under discussion are the creation of a
Europe-wide bank deposit guarantee scheme, transforming the euro
zone bailout fund into a European Monetary Fund and a pool of
money to help euro zone governments weather troubles not of
their own making.
All of these ideas are controversial.
"We are some way from reaching a consensus on the priorities and
method for moving the euro area forward, and time is running
out," Moscovici said in a speech at the Peterson Institute for
International Economics in Washington.
"If the June Euro Summit fails to take the necessary decisions,
I fear the momentum will be lost," he said, referring to a
meeting of euro zone leaders that is to give political direction
to further work on euro zone changes.
Agreement on key euro reforms will be more difficult as time
passes because after the summer holidays in Europe many
policy-makers are likely to be side-tracked by the election
campaign to the European Parliament and the selection of a new
European Commission, a new chairman of EU summits and a new head
of the European Central Bank.
(Reporting By Jan Strupczewski; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)
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