Eurozone

The ECB’s Board of Directors wants Greece to remain as a member of the Eurozone, as stated by ECB’s head economist and Executive Board member Peter Praet. Mr. Praet, however, set forth the question of “mutual trust” and implementation of pre-agreed upon measures.

Tagesspiegel am Sonntag hosted the views of Former Finance Minister of Germany, Theo Waigel.

“I could not believe, back in 1997-1998 that Greece could become a member of the Eurozone, and I had turned it down when the Greeks requested it”, he said.

An article in the Guardian, titled “Varoufakis has achieved one thing – uniting resentment of poorer nations,” describes Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis as a “glamour boy” and points to the problems caused by the way he “waxed triumphalist about how he had outfoxed the eurozone” following Greece’s deal to extend the country’s bailout to the end of next month.

EC head Jean Claude Juncker stated that “we still have a long way to go on the Greek matter”, since “specifics on reforms have not yet been clarified completely”. Despite all that, Mr. Juncker stated that “we are moving in the right direction”.

A group of economists mostly described as leftist and far-left activists from Europe and Latin America comprise the group of volunteers recruited to serve as advisers to Parliament's "committee of truth for the Greek public debt", a "brainchild" of controversial and outspoken Parliament president Zoi Konstantopoulou.

As the President of ECB Mario Draghi stated at a conference in Frankfurt, the integration of the Eurozone member states must be accelerated.

Furthermore, according to Mario Draghi, based on several macroeconomic data that have been announced recently, the Eurozone's recovery continues to recover gradually.

Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov said that although Bulgaria wants to accede to the Eurozone immediately, it realises that it is not fully prepared to introduce the common European currency yet.

Goranov added in an interview for Darik radio on Saturday that this will happen when the other members of the Eurozone agree on Bulgaria to do so.

The crisis at Corporate Commercial Bank (KTB) is likely to delay Bulgaria’s intention to join the Eurozone event further, Euromoney magazine has reported, quoting analysts.

Bulgaria is one of just three EU member states where over 50 percent of people do not feel like European citizens, a Eurobarometer survey has shown.

About 53% of Bulgarians, 50% of Italians and 51% of Greeks do not regard themselves as having an EU identity, according to a message on the European Commission's website.