Author: Brian Kettel"Losing one percentage point of competitiveness a year, if it goes on in time for a number of years, would become a condemnation for Italy and it would be difficult for us to stay in the single currency." That's the view of Romano Prodi, president-designate of the European Commission, speaking about Italy's ability to remain within the unified currency regime, June 1999.
"If there were exceptional circumstances and provided it was not done in a way which was hostile to the European Union." That's Romano Prodi, president of the European Commission, replying to the question whether existing members of the euro might choose to opt out of the euro, in The Spectator, May 2000.
Under the 1992 Maastricht Treaty, monetary union was intended to be an irreversible and irrevocable process. No mechanism exists in the treaty to allow a participating member state to withdraw. Romano Prodi is clearly...
