Eurozone countries should launch ambitious new projects such as common unemployment insurance to counter a surge in support for eurosceptical parties, French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici said in an interview.
"The eurozone needs to be further integrated, the eurozone needs to be stronger so that citizens' attachment to their currency is firmer", Moscovici said in an interview conducted on January 30 as part of a Reuters eurozone summit involving policymakers, politicians and market players.
Moscovici suggested the 18-nation currency area should set up a joint budget to tackle unemployment. "France wants a financial capacity, call it a budget, that could be used for unemployment insurance, which could -- why not? -- be financed by some of the proceeds from the financial transaction tax", Moscovici said.
Moscovici said improving the governance of the eurozone was another major project the bloc's leaders needed to tackle. He called for a full-time head of the Eurogroup of finance ministers, an idea backed by Germany and Italy, saying it could be merged with the existing post of EU economic and monetary affairs commissioner. Currently, Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem chairs the Eurogroup in a part-time capacity. Moscovici has been mooted in the past as a possible candidate for either post, but he dismissed the idea that he was interested in any such role.
Despite his ambition for further eurozone integration, Moscovici saw no rush for a new treaty, although Britain is eager for changes to give it more flexibility in the European Union. "Everyone prefers to work within the current treaties, I think", Moscovici said, linking any change to the prospect of pooling eurozone government debt issuance. "Our German friends never said they ruled out (joint) eurobonds, but that it was result of a process, and then a treaty could be justified. The modification of the treaties can not be a precondition."
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