Eurogroup’s Juncker rules out expulsion of euro members

Eurogroup head Jean-Claude Juncker ruled out on Thursday the possibility of expelling any country from the euro zone, saying such a move is not possible under European treaties.
"I exclude the hypothesis of expelling a country from the euro zone, in fact the treaty has no instrument which allows us to do that," Juncker told Portuguese television station TVI in an interview aired late Thursday.
Reuters reported on Wednesday that German and French officials have discussed plans for a radical overhaul of the European Union that would involve establishing a more integrated and potentially smaller euro zone.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel rejected the idea of a smaller euro zone on Thursday.
The euro zone's debt crisis took on a new dimension this week after it engulfed Italy, sending the country's bond yields sharply higher as fears escalated over its high debts. So far, the crisis has lead to bailouts of the relatively small economies of Greece, Ireland and Portugal.
But Juncker, who was on a two-day visit to discuss Portugal's bailout, told TVI he was sure that the current membership of the euro zone would not change in coming years.
"I think that in 10 years all of the countries in the euro zone will still have the euro," he said. "I am convinced that in 10 years time there will be more members of the euro zone."
He also said he thought it was "absurd" to think of Europe as an area split between what he referred to as a "virtuous north and a non-virtous south".