Euro collapse

Daily Telegraph columnist Ambrose Evans-Pritchard thinks the impending collapse of the Euro could be the way ahead for Europe.

Those of us who have been thundering ever since Maastricht that EMU is a woefully misconceived idea that will destroy the very Europe it was intended to cement, can only say: welcome to the club. In truth, it is a well-kept Brussels secret that many of the EU's own experts fear the euro will blow apart in the next nasty recession, with Italy, Portugal, Greece, and Spain shaping up as prime candidates for ejection.

As The Daily Telegraph's Brussels correspondent, I used to meet for furtive lunches with a Commission economist who was so worried about the coming smash-up that he had switched his savings into "hard" currencies, choosing foreign accounts beyond EU reach. I joke not. He knew, from his ringside seat, that the single currency had been thrust on Europe by the Delors crowd for entirely political reasons in the face of vehement warnings from the pros at the Directorate of Economic and Monetary Affairs.

The question now seems to be not if the Euro will collapse but just how much economic and social damage will occur before the unrepresentative EU political elite finally bows to the inevitable?

As suggested in Evans-Pritchard's article, the collapse of monetary union could, in the longer term, lead to the unravelling of the single market. To which we can add, if the single market unravels that will surely hasten hasten the collapse of political union. Suddenly Europe's future seems brighter than it did.