Barry Eichengreen Quotes

You've got some very powerful countries: Poland, the United Kingdom, Sweden and others who have a genuine desire to see the euro zone straighten itself out. It's good for all of us, whether you're in the euro zone or not, to make sure that it doesn't lead to a fracturing.

We have the EURO as a currency, which means a lot. It has not just stabilized the situation in Kosovo politically and economically, but also facilitated the direct contact that we have with Europe.

A country like France now does two-thirds of its trade within the euro zone.

Firstly, people take for granted that the E.U. has created the biggest economic space in the world.

Countries themselves need to do everything possible to remain in the euro zone.

De facto, you have a multi-speed Europe. You look at the Schengen, you look at the euro zone, all this kind of cooperations, you have a multi-speed Europe.

A country outside the euro zone cannot have a veto over countries in the euro zone.

In order for the E.U. area to stay together, they needed to form a banking union, which meant they needed to have a common credible deposit insurance guarantee for everybody in the E.U. area.

Part of the concept of the euro zone was to establish a common market. The banks were going to bank across all their countries like we bank across states. But that concept got killed for a whole bunch of reasons that I won't get into. That was a good concept, by the way. It may yet return, because there are huge economies of scale in banking. That's another thing people don't quite get.

The euro zone must strike for a better governance structure, and there is no alternative to that. Euro zone countries must either develop an exit mechanism for troubled members, or it should embrace a closer political union: an effective governance structure that is capable of enforcing rules.

If you put all the European countries together, we are the biggest economy in the world.

Is Europe going to be breaking? I don't think so. I think the euro will stay. I think at the end of the day Europeans will find the solutions in order to hold Europe together.

I hope Greece is going to remain in the Euro zone.

The Europeans governments have massively changed the landscape in Europe. There is no doubt about it. They have put together the European Financial Stability Fund. They have discussed and approved the European Stability Mechanism.

Great Britain is not part of the euro-zone; but the decision we take will have great importance for Great Britain.

While the Marshall Plan was important for Europe's recovery, Europe's prosperity was really built on economic integration and policy coherence.

I can confirm that Poland should become a eurozone country, and not just because of the treaties that have been signed, but because I consider it of strategic interest both for Poland and the E.U.

Integration is the most important asset Europe has, and the key component to European integration is the euro.

Europe and the euro zone have no reason, rationally, to push Greece out of the euro. But this is a system in which many parties, many countries, many governments, many electorates participate and we could have events which, rationally, are not controllable.

English businesses would face massive transaction costs if Scotland, their second biggest export market, used a different currency.

What we should be doing in the EU as a whole is more economic integration in the single market, rather than less.

Germany is the biggest economy of Europe and we need Germany on board for the economic reforms of Europe, including, of course, the deepening of the internal market, resisting protectionism, and supporting further economic policy coordination.

If the EU and the US can cooperate successfully on regulating financial markets, everyone else will follow.

Peace in Europe can only come through union in one economic system. The United States of Europe are overdue.

The Euro was a terrible mistake, one that is very difficult to unmake.