The debt-ridden eurozone risks break-up unless it forces banks to eventually share the crisis bill with taxpayers, Slovakia, the euro area member who recently refused to participate in the Greek bail-out, has suggested.
“Even during current conditions that are very tough, very complicated, and when the risk of the eurozone break-up – or at least of its very problematic functioning – is very real, despite all that, Estonia will become a new member in January,” Slovak finance minister Ivan Miklos said on Wednesday (24 November). He was speaking to university students in the Czech capital, Prague.
Since it came to power in July this year, the Slovak centre-right government has called for private investors to feel the pain of any rescue operation under the eurozone umbrella. It considers the Greek bail-out “essentially a mistake” and a “precedent” that made European governments a “hostage” of financial markets.
