Open letter: the eurocrisis needs a solution, now

The euro crisis needs a solution, now. The current measures are too little and too late and are precipitating global financial turmoil. The euro is far from perfect, as this crisis has revealed. But the answer is to fix its faults rather than allowing it to undermine and perhaps destroy the global financial system.

We, concerned Europeans, call upon the governments of the Eurozone to agree in principle on the need for a legally binding agreement that would: 1) establish a common treasury that can raise funds for the Eurozone as a whole and ensure that member-states adhere to fiscal discipline; 2) reinforce common supervision, regulation and deposit insurance within the Eurozone; and 3) develop a strategy that will produce both economic convergence and growth because the debt problem cannot be solved without growth.

While a legally binding agreement is being negotiated and ratified, the governments of the Eurozone must in the interim empower the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) and the European Central Bank (ECB) to cooperate in bringing the crisis under control. These institutions could then guarantee and eventually recapitalize the banking system and enable countries in need to refinance their debt, within agreed limits, at practically no cost by issuing treasury bills that can be rediscounted at the ECB.

We call upon the legislatures of the Eurozone countries to recognize that the euro needs a European solution. The pursuit of national solutions can only lead to dissolution.

Signatories:

Asger Aamund (Denmark)
President and CEO, A. J. Aamund A/S and Chairman of Bavarian Nordic A/S

Martti Ahtisaari (Finland)
Former President

Anders Aslund (Sweden)
Senior Fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics

Gordon Bajnai (Hungary)
Former Prime Minister of Hungary

Mario Baldassarri (Italy)
Member of the Italian Senate

Ulrich Beck (Germany)
Professor of Sociology, University of Munich

Peter Bofinger (Germany)
Economist; Member of the German Council of Economic Experts

Svetoslav Bojilov (Bulgaria)
Founder, Communitas Foundation and President, Venture Equity Bulgaria Ltd

Emma Bonino (Italy)
Vice President of the Senate; former EU Commissioner

Elmar Brok (Germany)
Foreign policy spokesman for the EPP Group in the European Parliament

Erhard Busek (Austria)
Chairman of the Institute for the Danube and Central Europe; former Vice-Chancellor of Austria.

Maria Cattaui (Greece/Switzerland)
Former Secretary of International Chamber of Commerce

Daniel Cohn-Bendit (Germany)
Member of the European Parliament

Bertrand Collomb (France)
Membre de l’Institut de France, Honorary Chairman of Lafarge

Massimo D’Alema (Italy)
President, Italianieuropei Foundation; President, Foundation for European Progressive Studies; former Prime Minister and Foreign Minister

Daniel Daianu (Romania)
Former Finance Minister

George David (Cyprus/Greece)
Chairman of the Board of Directors of Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company.

Howard Davies (United Kingdom)
Economist

Jean-Luc Dehaene (Belgium)
Former Prime Minister; Member of the European Parliament

Ales Debeljak (Slovenia)
Professor, University of Ljubljana

Gianfranco Dell’Alba (Italy)
Director, Confederation of Italian Industry (Confindustria) – Brussels office

Pavol Demes (Slovakia)
Former Foreign Minister; Senior Transatlantic Fellow, German Marshall Fund of the United States (Bratislava)

Kemal Dervis (Turkey)
Former Minister of State for Economic Affairs; Vice-President and Director of Global Economy and Development, Brookings.

Tibor Dessewffy (Hungary)
President, DEMOS Hungary

Andrew Duff (UK)
President of the Union of European Federalists

Sebastian Dullien (Germany)
Professor for International Economics, HTW Berlin – University of Applied Sciences

Hans Eichel (Germany)
Former Finance Minister

Joschka Fischer (Germany)
Former Foreign Minister and Vice-Chancellor

Timothy Garton Ash (UK)
Professor of European Studies, Oxford University

Anthony Giddens (UK)
Emeritus Professor, London School of Economics

Charles Goodhart (United Kingdom)
Economist; former member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee

Heather Grabbe (UK)
Executive Director, Open Society Institute – Brussels

Charles Grant (UK)
Director, Centre for European Reform

Jean-Marie Guéhenno (France)
Director of the Centre on International Conflict Resolution, Columbia University (New York); Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution; former Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations at the UN Operations at the UN

Alfred Gusenbauer (Austria)
Former Federal Chancellor of the Republic of Austria

Hans Hækkerup (Denmark)
Chairman, Defence Commission; former Defence Minister

David Hannay (United Kingdom)
Member of the House of Lords;

Chris Haskins (UK/Ireland)
Member of the House of Lords; Chair of the European Movement

Pierre Hassner (France)
Emeritus Research Director at Sciences-Po (CERI)

Steven Heinz (Austria)
Co-Founder & Co-Chairman, Lansdowne Partners Ltd

Francois Heisbourg (France)
Chair of the IISS and Geneva Centre for Security Studies

Diego Hidalgo (Spain)
Co-founder of Spanish newspaper El País; President, FRIDE

Michiel van Hulten (The Netherlands)
Course leader of the FutureLab Europe programme, European Policy Centre, Brussels; former Member of the European Parliament

Jaakko Iloniemi (Finland)
Former Executive Director, Crisis Management Initiative; former Ambassador

Wolfgang Ischinger (Germany)
Chairman, Munich Security Conference; Global Head of Government Affairs Allianz SE

Minna Jarvenpaa (Finland/US)
International Advocacy Director, Open Society Foundation

Mary Kaldor (UK)
Professor, London School of Economics

Glenys Kinnock (UK)
Shadow House of Lords spokesperson on international development

Gerald Knaus (Austria)
Chairman of the European Stability Initiative and Carr Center Fellow

Rem Koolhaas (The Netherlands)
Architect and urbanist and Professor at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University

Fiorella Kostoris (Italian)
Economist

Bernard Kouchner (France)
Former Foreign Minister

Ivan Krastev (Bulgaria)
Chair of Board, Centre for Liberal Strategies

Armin Laschet (Germany)
Former Minister for Integration

Mark Leonard (UK)
Director, European Council on Foreign Relations

Gerard Lyons (UK)
Chief Economist and Head of Global Research at Standard Chartered

George Magnus (UK)
Senior Economic Adviser, UBS Investment Bank

Emma Marcegaglia (Italy)
President, Confindustria

Tadeusz Mazowiecki (Poland)
Former Polish Prime Minister

Dominique Moisi (France)
Senior Adviser, IFRI

Hildegard Müller (Germany)
Chairwoman, BDEW Bundesverband der Energie- und Wasserwirtschaft

Kalypso Nicolaidis (Greece/France)
Professor of International Relations, University of Oxford

Christine Ockrent (Belgium)
CEO, Audiovisuel Extérieur de la France

Dick Oosting (The Netherlands)
CEO, European Council on Foreign Relations

Mabel van Oranje (The Netherlands)
CEO, The Elders

Marcelino Oreja Aguirre (Spain)
Former EU Commissioner

Cem Ozdemir (Germany)
Co-Leader, Bündnis 90/Die Grünen

Ana Palacio (Spain)
Former Foreign Minister; former Senior Vice President and General Counsel of the World Bank Group

Jose Pérez Fernandes (Spain)
Chairman, Banco de Madrid

Julian Priestley (UK)
Former Secretary General of the European Parliament

Andrew Puddephatt (UK)
Director, Global Partners & Associated Ltd

Hélène Rey (France)
Professor of Economics, London Business School

George Robertson (UK)
Former Secretary General of NATO

Albert Rohan (Austria)
Former Secretary General for Foreign Affairs

Dariusz Rosati (Poland)
Former Foreign Minister

Adam D. Rotfeld (Poland)
Former Foreign Minister

Olivier Roy (France)
Professor, European University Institute (Florence)

Daniel Sachs (Sweden)
CEO, Proventus

Marietje Schaake (The Netherlands)
Member of the European Parliament

Giuseppe Scognamiglio (Italy)
Head of Public Affairs – Executive Vice President, Unicredit SpA

Narcís Serra (Spain)
Chair of CIDOB Foundation; former Vice President of the Spanish Government

David Simon (UK)
Member of the House of Lords; Former Chairman of BP

Aleksander Smolar (Poland)
Chairman of the Board, Stefan Batory Foundation

Javier Solana (Spain)
Former EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy & Secretary-General of the Council of the EU; former Secretary General of NATO

Pedro Solbes (Spain)
Former EU Commissioner and former Minister of Finance

Carlos Solchago (Spain)
Former Minister of Economy and Finance from 1985 to 1993; former Chair of the Interim Committee of the International Monetary Fund 1991-1993; Director-Partner of Solchaga Recio & asociados.

George Soros (Hungary/US)
Founder and Chairman, Open Society Foundations

Pär Stenbäck (Finland)
Former Foreign Minister

Ion Sturza (Romania)
President, GreenLight Invest.; former Prime Minister of the Republic of Moldova

Paweł Swieboda (Poland)
President, Demos-EUROPA, Centre for European Strategy

Loukas Tsoukalis (Greece)
Professor, University of Athens and President, ELIAMEP

George Vassiliou (Cyprus)
Former President

Guy Verhofstadt (Belgium)
Member of the European Parliament; leader of the ALDE Group; former Prime Minister

Vaira Vike-Freiberga (Latvia)
Former President

David Vines (UK)
Professor of Economics, Oxford University

Antonio Vitorino (Portugal)
Lawyer; former European Commissioner

Norbert Walter (Germany)
Former Chief Economist, Deutsche Bank

Stephen Wall (UK)
Former British Permanent Representative to the European Union

Carlos Alonso Zaldívar (Spain)
Ambassador of Spain to Brazil

Stelios Zavvos (Greece)
CEO, Zeus Capital Managers Ltd