07/11/2011
Speech at the European Chamber of Commerce in Honk Kong
"The European Union and particularly the Member States of the euro area, indeed, are in great trouble. For about two years now, a debt crisis is challenging Europe and the future of the European Union. Since the outbreak of the so-called Greek crisis in December 2009, followed by a Portuguese financial crisis in 2010 and an Irish crisis earlier this year, the euro area is confronted with the most severe test since the birth of the European Union.
Yet, we have to recognize, the 27 Member States of the Union and particularly the 17 Member States of the euro area, still fail to combat this crisis effectively as we are still confronted with faltering stockmarkets, growing debts and rating agencies downgrading banks and countries alike.
Let me first answer the question, what went wrong ?
First of all, I think we have made a strategic mistake at the beginning, when we launched the euro. We launched a monetary union, but we did not install an economic and fiscal union. Today we know all this is impossible. A single currency with 17 different governments, 17 different bond markets, 17 different economic strategies can simply not work..."
Read the full speech here: EN
Guy Verhofstadt is the Leader of Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) in the European Parliament and a former Prime Minister of Belgium