Tariq Ali Quotes

The 1992 crisis proved that the existing system was unstable. Not moving forward to the euro would have set up Europe for even more disruptive crises.

Indeed, the creators of the euro envisioned it as an instrument to promote political union.

I am sure the euro will oblige us to introduce a new set of economic policy instruments. It is politically impossible to propose that now. But some day there will be a crisis and new instruments will be created.

If I had political responsibility, I would want to prepare for a plan B that would foresee that the European currency union, that the eurozone, no longer necessarily consists of 17 member states. And that means to make provisions so that other countries are not pulled into the maelstrom through contagion.

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.

Interest rates do not have to be identical across the whole euro area, but it is unacceptable if major differences arise from broken capital markets or concern about a euro area break-up.

We must break up the eurozone. We must set those Mediterranean countries free.

Giving Northern Europe a veto over Southern Europe's budgets will not hold a monetary union together. The euro zone will continue to need the weaker countries to stomach decades of high unemployment to grind down wages.

Our eurozone partners have made it clear: The choice is between staying in or getting out of the eurozone.

In the end, the politics of the euro zone weren't strong enough to create a fully integrated fiscal union with a common banking system, etc.

While it was an experiment to bring them together, nothing has divided Europe as much as the euro.

The euro is a sickly premature infant, the result of an over-hasty monetary union.

It is the entire euro zone system which is under threat at the moment, not just a few small countries anymore... Our euro is under threat. The changing situation needs a quick and immediate reaction.

I think it's often discussed that leaving the Euro is an option for Greece. I think this is really not an option.

It is a responsibility we perceive from the entire international community to protect the stability of the single currency as well as the European frame work.

The vast majority of Greeks accept the need for reform and want to keep our country inside the euro zone.

The euro is a vital issue for Germany. There is no other country that derives as much benefit from the common domestic market and the monetary union as Germany.

We are near, very near, to an end to the eurozone crisis... The worst - in the sense of the fear of the eurozone breaking up - is over. But the best isn't there yet.

Most of what needs to be changed in the euro zone can be done without treaty changes. The demand for treaty change is as political as it is legal and I don't think it's going to happen soon.

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.

Britain is not in the single currency, and we're not going to be. But we all need the eurozone to have the right governance and structures to secure a successful currency for the long term.

I described the euro as a burning building with no exits and so it has proved for some of the countries in it.

I would like to see Greece as a case study, an opportunity for Europe to strengthen its coordination of fiscal policy.

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.

Greece has given Europe the opportunity to fix a defect in the euro zone, that is the fact that we did not have a fiscal union. Now steps have been taken to begin that process. And there is more solidarity from nation to nation, and that is a good thing. That has been Greece's gift to Europe.