Photo: Thierry Charlier/AFPItaly and Greece on Thursday gave a guarded response to EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker's call for a Euro-wide finance minister, saying there was little point in creating the job just for the sake of it. But "a finance minister must create opportunities", he said in translated remarks at a news conference, "it is not enough to create a job". But he said democratic mechanisms were needed to accompany any future eurozone finance minister post, and the "political and economic intentions" behind such an appointment had to be clear. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras told the same news conference that there was no need for any finance minister if the job was simply to watch over compliance with eurozone convergence criteria. "A finance minister who would just be a policeman punishing unruly members would bring nothing new to the table," he said.

Source: The Local September 14, 2017 14:15 UTC