Access Investments-European Union- ROMANIA

PRAGUE—The Czech Republic's euro-skeptic leadership is taking some new swipes at the neighboring single-currency zone, which is struggling to quell internal dissension about how to deal with its weaker members' debt woes. On Monday, Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas told a group of Czech diplomats: "We agreed to join a [monetary] union, not a transfer union or debt union." He went on to say that an independent currency was critical to the country's economic health. The Czech Republic, along with all the former Eastern Bloc countries now in the European Union, is required to adopt the euro eventually, as a condition of membership. But there is no deadline for joining, and Prague has long made it clear it is in no rush. Other Central European states that once hungered to belong to the euro zone are also backing away from the troubled union, hesitant about tying their fates to those of struggling and more profligate neighbors. Last week, Czech President Vaclav Klaus, speaking at an economic and political forum in Austria, dismissed Czech participation in the euro zone as "not an issue," blamed the euro for the financial crisis now roiling Europe. Mr. Klaus said the euro-zone states were too different to fit into the "straitjacket" of the single currency. He said the euro could only survive by cutting the number of countries using it or by draconian enforcement of common economic policies. He said he preferred the first option. The euro zone would like to have more countries like the Czech Republic. Its outstanding public debt is about 40% of annual gross domestic product, and its annual budget deficits are relatively narrow.