Schroeder calls for creation of a ‘United States of Europe’

FORMER German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder yesterday called for the creation of a “United States of Europe”, saying the bloc needed a common government to avoid future economic crises.

Schroeder, a Social Democrat who ran the country from 1998 to 2005, said in an interview with Der Spiegel magazine that EU leaders were wrong to expect the euro to drive the bloc on its own.

He said: “The current crisis makes it relentlessly clear that we cannot have a common currency zone without a common fiscal, economic and social policy.