Tag: Eurozone

News

EU Wins Nobel Peace Prize

The European Union, a collection of countries in Europe, has been awarded an important prize — the Nobel Prize.

It was given the honour for keeping peace for more than 65 years.

That is a very big accomplishment, especially because the Second World War began just 21 years after the First World War ended in 1918.

But not everyone is happy to see the European Union receive the prestigious prize.

That’s because even though Europe is not at war, it is struggling with a different kind of problem.

Many countries in Europe, including Greece, Spain and Italy, are having trouble paying down their debts.

Their governments borrowed too much money and now they must cut back on the amount of money they spend to pay their workers and for things like roads, hospitals and schools.

News Politics

A Plan To Help Eurozone Countries In Debt

Europe’s central bank thinks it has a good plan to help countries like Greece, Spain and Italy. Those countries are struggling because they took on too much debt.

The idea is that the European Central Bank will agree to buy some of the debt.

In return, the troubled countries must agree to spend less money and to put their finances in order.

When countries lend money to other countries, they receive small payments called interest.

When a country borrows too much money, some of the people who lent the money begin to worry that they won’t get their money back. So they demand higher and higher interest payments.

This puts pressure on countries that are already having trouble paying back all the money they borrowed.

It pushes their debt even higher.