Wolfgang Schaeuble, the German finance minister, has said that he wants introduce the new role of currency commissioner.

He expressed that the successful candidate to the job would have wide-ranging powers to strike down national budgets and would be someone that was "feared round the world".

He also said that Chancellor Angela Merkel was in full support of the move.

Albrecht Ritschl, an adviser to the German Finance Ministry, told Today business presenter Simon Jack that "this whole thing is for domestic consumption".

"These things are popular within the German electorate", he explained and emphasised that the questions is "whether this would fly with anyone outside of Germany", and added that "this doesn't look very likely."

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