Joint EU finance ministry is matter of distant future

The eurozone still has a long way to go before it can create a joint EU finance ministry, Slovak parliamentary official Ladislav Kamenicky said on Tuesday.

Representatives of the European Parliament and national EU parliaments met in Bratislava on Monday and Tuesday for an interparliamentary conference on stability, economic coordination and governance in the EU.

According to Kamenicky, the process of completing European economic and monetary union should meet its targets in around 2025, so there's still a long way to go to the creation of a joint EU finance ministry.

"First, we must arrive at convergence - that is, bringing the economies of individual member states closer together, and that's still a bit problematic," said Kamenicky at a press conference.

In addition, Roberto Gualtieri, chair of the European Parliament's Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, called the notion of a full-fledged eurozone finance minister as an inevitable yet quite ambitious goal that will require changes to existing agreements and political consensus.

(APD)