LOC11:25
08:25 GMT
LONDON, June 22 (KUNA) -- Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti has spoken of
the potentially disastrous consequences of the collapse of the eurozone.
Monti has warned of the apocalyptic consequences of failure at next week's
summit of EU leaders, outlining a potential death spiral that could threaten
the political and economic future of Europe.
The Italian leader is to hold talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel of
Germany, the French president, Fran\ois Hollande, and Spain's prime minister,
Mariano Rajoy, in the hope that the single currency's big four countries can
pave the way for a breakthrough at next week's meeting.
Speaking to the Guardian newspaper here and a group of leading European
newspapers published Friday, Monti said that, without a successful outcome at
the summit, "there would be progressively greater speculative attacks on
individual countries, with harassment of the weaker countries".
The attacks would be focused not only on those who had failed to respect EU
guidelines, but also on those like Italy, which he said had abided by the
rules "but which carry with them from the past a high debt".
Monti warned: "A large part of Europe would find itself having to continue
to put up with very high interest rates that would then impact on the states
and also indirectly on firms.
This is the direct opposite of what is needed for economic growth."
Outlining the result of a failure at the talks, Monti said that, faced with
creeping economic paralysis, "the frustration of the public towards Europe
would grow", creating a vicious circle.
"To emerge in good shape from this crisis of the eurozone and the European
economy, ever more integration is needed," said Monti.
Yet, if the summit failed to resolve the problems quickly, "public opinion,
but also that of the governments and parliament will turn against that greater
integration".
Monti said he could see the beginnings of the process "even in the Italian
parliament, which has traditionally been pro-European and no longer is." (end)
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