The possibility of Britain voting to leave the European Union must not prevent euro zone countries from deepening their economic integration in the months ahead, French Finance Minister Michel Sapin told Reuters on Thursday.
In an interview, he also said that current financial market volatility is not justified by the economic conditions.
In
a previous
stint as finance minister, in 1992, Sapin witnessed
firsthand the humiliation of his British counterpart Norman Lamont, when
London was forced to leave the European exchange rate mechanism, the
precursor of the euro.
"I think that it was the burn from that expulsion that has left scars," he said, warning against complicating London's task of winning voters support for remaining in the EU.
In
a package of proposals aimed at persuading Britain to remain in the EU,
European Council President Donald Tusk has offered London a way of
slowing down euro zone legislation that it does not like while being
careful not to give it a veto.
"It's perfectly
legitimate that we take each side's interests into account, but nothing
must block the deepening of economic and monetary union in the coming
years," Sapin said.
With France and Germany
planning proposals on strengthening the euro zone before the end of the
year, Sapin said more coordination was needed, specifically on
structural reforms.
But the priority was not
setting up a common euro zone finance ministry as the German and French
central bank heads suggested earlier this week, Sapin said.
"It's time to move in the coming months by taking strong initiatives," he said, adding France was in favour of changes that did not require rewriting EU treaties in 2016 or 2017.
Brought
to the brink of breaking up over Greece, the euro zone's debt crisis
forced its members to strengthen in particular supervision of the
banking sector. But some officials, particularly at the European Central
Bank, say that much remains to be done to avert any future crises.
Sapin
said he was confident that the Greek government would live up to its
reform promises with a review of its efforts underway, which has to be
completed before talks on easing its debt burden can be launched.
MARKETS
With
financial markets once again gripped by a bout of volatility, Sapin
said that the euro zone was this time much more resilient due to
members' reform efforts in the recent years.
Finance
ministers from the Group of 20 economic powers would address the issue
of volatility at a meeting this month in Shanghai and stress that
markets must reflect underlying economic fundamentals.
"Today's
volatility does not seem very legitimate to me. There's a yoyo effect
that doesn't reflect real trends in the world economy," he said.
Fears
of a Chinese slowdown have rocked financial markets in recent days,
with speculation that Beijing may devalue the yuan in a bid to stimulate
its economy.
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