UK's Osborne : favours euro zone fiscal union

The euro zone needs to move towards some sort of greater fiscal union to deal with a crisis which has undermined the single currency area, Reuters cited UK finance minister George Osborne as saying on Saturday. Asked if the only answer for the health of the euro zone was some kind of fiscal union, Osborne told BBC radio: 'The short answer is yes.' Osborne earlier this month urged euro zone countries to develop a system of common euro zone bonds to help put a lid on a worsening debt crisis which has threatened the future of the currency bloc. 'I was against Britain joining the single currency. One of the reasons ... was because i thought the remorseless logic of having a single currency is you end up having something akin to a single budget policy. You can't have one without the other,' Osborne said on Saturday. 'An unstable euro is very bad news for us, we have to ensure that our influence on important decisions like financial services is not undermined. But we do yes have to allow greater fiscal union while protecting our own national interest.'