Berlin will need to subsidise struggling EU states for long time, says Hague

GERMANY WILL subsidise struggling European Union states such as Greece, Portugal and Italy because of the euro zone crisis, British foreign secretary William Hague has said.

Mr Hague, who has in the past described the single currency “as a burning building with no exits”, said the three countries – he did not include the Republic of Ireland – were facing unpalatable choices.

“It clearly means that being in the euro that Greeks, or Italians or Portuguese have to accept some very big changes in what happens in their country, even bigger than if they weren’t in the euro. And Germans will have to accept that they are going to subsidise those countries for a long time to come really, for the rest of their lifetimes,” he told the Spectator magazine.

“It was folly to create this system. It will be written about for centuries as a kind of historical monument to collective folly. But it’s there and we have to deal with it,” said Mr Hague, who opposed calls for Britain to join the euro when he led the Conservatives in the 1990s.

Many of the countries that did join should not have been let in, he said.

“There are lots of lessons for the future in not including, in currencies or in other groupings, countries that do not meet the standards. But those are the lessons for the future.”

Questioned about British chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne’s declaration that the euro zone states had just six weeks to save the currency, Mr Hague refused to be drawn on what would happen if the supposed deadline was exceeded. “Then we’ll be even more worried.”

On the United Kingdom’s relationship, Mr Hague said demands for a return of substantial powers from Brussels could form “one of the dividing lines” between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats during the 2015 general election campaign.

However, he insisted that Conservative ministers in the British government were not pushing for either the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union or a radical renegotiation of its membership – although, privately, some ministers say exactly that.

“The EU does have too much power. I haven’t changed that view from being in government; in fact, if anything, being in government has reinforced that view. And there should be powers that are returned to this country,” he said.