Jean-Claude Juncker: Greece became a euro member after having forged the statistic material

"It’s true that Greece became a euro member in 2001 after having forged the statistic material," Jean-Claude Juncker, head of the European Commission, said in an interview to Bild, Report informs.

‘The euro is our common currency, and that is irrevocable. A currency union must be more stable than a marriage, otherwise nobody will believe in it. That’s why, prior to a euro accession, we must look much more closely than we did in the past. It’s true that Greece became a euro member in 2001 after having forged the statistic material. To this day, I blame myself for that. As a finance minister, I didn’t want independent EU statisticians to be allowed to review national data. That’s why we’ve changed this: today, the independent EU Statistical Office, Eurostat, can thoroughly check the books of all EU member states. So Europe is capable of learning from its mistakes," he said.

Answering the question ‘Would it have been better if Greece had left the euro?’, Jean-Claude Juncker said that once a country leaves the euro, the entire euro is at risk of collapsing: "And so far, the support for Greece has actually not cost anyone a single euro."