No country should be forced to remain in the eurozone if it does not want to, the European Central Bank's chief economist Otmar Issing said in a magazine interview released Sunday. "Independent from any legal regulations, you cannot force a country to remain in a community if it wants out," Issing told the weekly newsmagazine Der Spiegel in an interview released ahead of publication on Monday. "No-one can or should be prevented from taking such a step," Issing said.
The European treaty does not include any clause that allows a country to quit the single currency area once it has joined the euro.
And a spokeswoman for the European Commission recently said that the euro was "for ever" in response to propositions made by an Italian minister for Italy to go back to its previous currency, the lira.
Issing nevertheless said that the current debate on a possible break-up of the euro area or an exit by Italy was "perverse."
"The economic costs alone, not to mention the political damage that would be caused by the exit from monetary union would be unimaginable," Issing said.
"Playing with such ideas only fuels concerns and undermines confidence in the euro. People who talk about this but don't offer credible alternatives are simply trying to deflect attention from their own errors," the ECB chief economist said.
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