The Czech Republic must adopt the euro if it wants to be involved in the EU’s future developments, all three former Czech EU commissioners, Pavel Telička, Vladimír Špidla and Štefan Füle, told the Czech News Agency, adding that the EU must undergo reforms.
Telička, Špidla and Füle spoke separately to the Czech News Agency before the 20th anniversary of the Czech Republic’s accession to the EU on 1 May 2004.
If the Czech Republic wants to be present and relevant in all important discussions on the EU’s future development, it should adopt the euro, said Telička, commissioner from May to November 2004.
In his view, there are no fundamental economic arguments against introducing the euro. Many representatives of the current governing parties are well aware of the need to introduce the euro, but they lack decisiveness and show weakness in this respect, he said, adding that if the opposition succeeds in the next elections, the introduction of the euro will be delayed and Czechia will be more vulnerable.
Füle, a commissioner between 2010 and 2014, said the people had decided the move to adopt the euro in the referendum on Czech accession to the EU. “But politicians have not hurried and have not felt the need for us to be part of the major decision-making processes on the further development of the euro and the euro area,” he said.
The argument by some Czech politicians that the euro looks and works differently now when compared to when the Czech Republic joined the EU is nothing more than an excuse said Füle.
According to Füle, the preparation of candidate countries for EU membership and the preparation of the EU for new members must be interlinked or conditional on each other. This is the only way to ensure the credibility of the enlargement process in both candidate and member countries.
According to Špidla (Social Democrat, SOCDEM), former prime minister and EU commissioner from November 2004 to February 2010, the EU should be reformed like any living organism that must respond to changes and situations as they arise.
(Ondřej Plevák | Euractiv.cz)
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