EU Commission President Juncker: We Didn't Accept Greece in the Eurozone Prematurely

The President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, surprised the audience during a recent presentation of former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl’s new book, entitled “Aus Sorge Um Europa,” in Frankfurt, when he defended Greece’s accession to the Eurozone back in 2001. In the book, Mr. Kohl claims that his successor, Gerhard Schroeder, prematurely accepted Greece in the Eurozone.

According to Deutche Welle, the President of the European Commission said, “we did not allow Greece to be among the first group of countries that would adopt the euro, because it was not ready for that. However, later, Greeks made significant efforts.” Despite that, he acknowledged that the European partners “were misled by false statistical data,” but underlined that there is no chance such a mistake will occur again.

Addressing an audience of about 100 journalists Mr. Juncker recognized the achievements and sacrifices of the Greek people during the last four years of the crisis, however, he declared that we should not seek scapegoats for the Greek politicians’ mistakes in the past decades. Characterizing the introduction to the Eurozone as a “policy of peace,” the EU Commission President said he was disappointed over the revival of the resentment cliches about European citizens both in Germany (towards Greeks) and Greece (towards Germans). Furthermore, he underlined that the Euro “made the European integration non reversible, as it protects Europe and without it things would be bad.”

In his newly published book, Helmut Kohl heavily criticizes his successor Gerhard Schroeder for his choices, amongst which was the “premature introduction of Greece to the Eurozone,” at a time when the country was not ready for it.

The former Chancellor underlines that Greece must be supported by its European partners, while according to him, faith in fairness and stability are necessary in order to restore hope in the Euro.