End of Czech crown intervention renews calls for euro

24 April 2017

Ten days after the Czech National Bank ended its intervention which drove down the value of the Czech crown, the currency has held its value after falling last week into the range of CZK 27 per euro. These developments have brought the question of accepting the euro as the national currency back to the fore, despite the advantages that some economists say an independent policy has brought with it. The Transport and Industry Union (SPD) is making the push, but it finds the idea opposed by the powerful Finance Minister Andrej Babis. “For an independent economy in the European Union like ours, it’s important that we be at the center of the decision-making about what the European Union, bureaucracy and regulations, will look like,” said Radek Špicar of the SPD, according to denik.cz.

It’s a view echoed by one of the biggest opposition parties, TOP 09, whose chairman, Miroslav Kalousek, says a place at the European table is crucial. “We want to be in the faster part of Europe as no one will be talking with the slower part,” he said.
Babiš, however, is against such talk. “There could be times when we’re not doing so well,” he warned. “That’s why I think that the fact that we have our own currency is good. The eurozone project was an economic project that’s become a political project, and I would really not like to be in the eurozone and have to guarantee Greek debts,” he said.

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