Two decades on, ‘Germany and France still don’t see eye to eye on euro’

Professor Iain Begg of the London School of Economics' European Institute discusses the state of Europe's single currency two decades after it was founded. The euro has been "a good thing for the great majority of countries" in the 19-member bloc, Begg says, singling out crisis-hit Greece as one notable exception. However, he notes, “there is still, to most economic commentators, a problem at the heart of the euro: which is that the two principal countries behind it – France and Germany – still don’t see eye to eye on which way the euro should go. The Germans want rules, the French want discretion.”