EU crisis: Italy tipped to leave eurozone amid coronavirus panic

THE EUROZONE will start reducing the number of its members in order to survive and Italy will be one of the first countries to drop out, Lord David Owen has claimed in an exclusive interview with Express.co.uk.

The eurozone economy of 19 EU countries barely grew at all in the final quarter of last year. An official estimate put economic growth in the region at 0.1 percent during the three months to the end of December 2019. Two of the eurozone's largest economies also shrank in the period: France by 0.1 percent and Italy by 0.3 percent.

To further complicate matters, the coronavirus outbreak has taken grip of the boot-shaped country and will teeter Rome on the edge of recession.

As the intense struggles being experienced by some of the bloc’s most influential economies highlight the crisis the eurozone faces over the next couple of years, Lord David Owen explained in an interview with Express.co.uk why the monetary union will soon collapse.

He said: "I personally don't think it will survive.

"You survive by merging – that is the history of currencies that start off across groupings.

"The groupings merge.