Austria: Eurozone should eject its weak members

Austria’s foreign minister has called on the eurozone countries to create an exit mechanism, which would allow that the failing member states be expelled from the single-currency bloc.

“We need to create ways to be able to eject someone from the eurozone,” AFP quoted Michael Spindelegger, who is also the country’s deputy chancellor, as saying on Thursday.

Spindelegger said the legal mechanism would be for countries “that don’t meet their commitments,” noting that such a mechanism would bolster market confidence in the euro.

“If we already had this…then we would already have drawn the consequences,” he said.

The centre-right politician is said to have made the remarks in reference to Greece, which has already secured two bailout packages and could need more.

Greece has promised to cut EUR 11.5 billion off its 2013-14 budget in order to get bailed out by other eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund.

The European Union and the IMF have presented Greece with two rescue packages in return for specific austerity measures, which include the cutting of public sector salaries and pensions, increasing taxes, and overhauling the pension system.

The long-drawn-out eurozone debt crisis, which began in the country in late 2009 and reached Italy, Spain, and France last year, is viewed as a threat, not only to Europe, but also to many of the world’s more developed economies.