EU To Assist More Countries In Joining The Eurozone
|The EU has announced that it plans to help more countries join the Euro to provide better integration throughout the union. The plans to further integrate the Eurozone come at a time when the economy of the zone is growing at the fastest rate in ten years. Â
European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis has proposed the details of a new package and passed it to of Europe’s Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) for consideration. The European Economic and Monetary Union is the group of policies which converge the economies of all EU states including the Eurozone countries.
 Dombrovskis said “We are currently proposing … How we can support the preparatory work and necessary reforms in those countries wishing to join euro zone. And by this we are showing that euro zone should be enlarging, and the commission is ready to assist those member states working on this to ensure that they can be prepared to join the euro zone and can prosper within the euro zone.”
With Eurozone countries failing to reach their deficit targets, and rising discontent across some EU countries, leaders are looking for ways to put more emphasis on reforming policies to improve levels of confidence among citizens.
Uncertainty over Brexit is also adding to need for more effort to me made to unify the other nations. Britain is the currently the EU’s second largest economy, and with other member states witnessing anti-EU movements, it’s crucial that the union strengthens itself to prevent more countries leaving.
Strengthening the EU is also thought to be important in order to counter some of the Russian influence in states like Lithuania. Dombrovskis, who formerly served as prime minister in Lithuania said that “We propose dedicated tools to support structural reforms in euro area member states, and we propose (a) dedicated facility to support those member states working toward euro accession,”
This also involves strategies to “transform and strengthen” the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) by turning it into a European Monetary Fund in the future. The ESM is working to provide safety nets for member states that are in financial trouble and providing assistance to countries in large amount of national debt.
Dombrovskis added that “No country will be forced to join the euro zone … There are no strict deadlines. What we’re proposing now is a tool to work with those member states willing to join the euro zone and actively working in this direction.” Bulgaria has been named as one of those member states.