German, UK finance ministers view European reform 'with optimism'

PanARMENIAN.Net - The EU must ensure non-eurozone countries, such as the UK, are legally protected in the event of further European integration, the finance minister of Germany said, according to BBC News.

Chancellor George Osborne and his German counterpart said any changes to EU treaties must "guarantee fairness".

Writing in the Financial Times, the pair said non-eurozone nations must not be put at a "systematic disadvantage". It comes a month after Germany's leader Angela Merkel visited the UK. During the visit she and Prime Minister David Cameron discussed possible changes to the EU.

Cameron has said that if the Conservatives win the 2015 election, he will seek to renegotiate the terms of the UK's membership of the European Union and put the outcome to an in-out referendum of the British people in 2017.

One of Cameron's key negotiating demands ahead of the referendum is that the interests of non-eurozone states must be protected.

In the joint article, Osborne and the German finance minister Wolfgang Schauble wrote that "as the euro area continues to integrate, it is important that countries outside the euro area are not at a systematic disadvantage in the EU".

It is the first time Germany has indicated that countries such as the UK must not be put at a disadvantage by eurozone nations' moves to integrate more closely.

Writing together, the pair said: "So future EU reform and treaty change must include reform of the governance framework to put euro area integration on a sound legal basis, and guarantee fairness for those EU countries inside the single market but outside the single currency."

They said economic recovery in Europe was "vital", but warned that the European economy had "stalled" over the last six years.

The pair wrote that they "approach European reform with optimism", adding that "looking ahead we can create a flexible and outward-looking EU".

Merkel, who met the Queen during her visit to UK, said after meeting Cameron that she was willing to work with the UK to reform the European Union but warned it would not be "a piece of cake".

And during an address to Parliament she praised the "unparalleled success" of the EU free market but stressed that "we need to change the political shape of the EU in keeping with the times".

She told the UK's gathered political leaders the EU had to become stronger, saying: "In order to attain this goal we need a strong United Kingdom with a strong voice inside the European Union.

"If we have that, we will be able to make the necessary changes for the benefit of all."