From Mr George Soros and 95 others.
Sir, 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 and the European Central Bank to co-operate in bringing the crisis under control. These institutions could then guarantee and eventually recapitalise 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 recognise that the euro needs a European solution. The pursuit of national solutions can only lead to dissolution.
Asger Aamund (Denmark), President and Chief Executive, A.J. Aamund; Chairman, Bavarian Nordic
Martti Ahtisaari (Finland), Former President
Anders Aslund (Sweden), Senior Fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics
Gordon Bajnai (Hungary), Former Prime Minister
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
Emma Bonino (Italy), Vice-President of the Senate; former European Union Commissioner
Elmar Brok (Germany), Foreign policy spokesman for the European People’s Party Group in the European Parliament
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, 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 Institution
Tibor Dessewffy (Hungary), President, Demos Hungary
Andrew Duff (UK), President of the Union of European Federalists
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 and Political Science
Charles Goodhart (UK), 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 United Nations
Alfred Gusenbauer (Austria), Former Federal Chancellor
Hans Hækkerup (Denmark), Chairman, Defence Commission; former Defence Minister
David Hannay (UK), 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 and Co-Chairman, Lansdowne Partners
François Heisbourg (France), Chair of the International Institute for Strategic Studies and Geneva Centre for Security Studies
Diego Hidalgo (Spain), Co-founder of the Spanish newspaper El País; President, FRIDE (Fundación para las Relaciones Internacionales y el Diálogo Exterior, Madrid)
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
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
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 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), Chief Executive, Audiovisuel Extérieur de la France
Dick Oosting (The Netherlands), Chief Executive, European Council on Foreign Relations
Mabel van Oranje (The Netherlands), Chief Executive, The Elders
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 Priestly (UK), Former Secretary-General of the European Parliament
Andrew Puddephatt (UK), Director, Global Partners & Associated
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), Chief Executive, Proventus
Marietje Schaake (The Netherlands), Member of the European Parliament
Giuseppe Scognamiglio (Italy), Head of Public Affairs – Executive Vice-President, UniCredit
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 and 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; former Chair of the Interim Committee of the International Monetary Fund; Director-Partner, 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
Pawel Swieboda (Poland), President, Demos-Europa, Centre for European Strategy
Loukas Tsoukalis (Greece), Professor, University of Athens and President, ELIAMEP (Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy)
George Vassiliou (Cyprus), Former President
Guy Verhofstadt (Belgium), Member of the European Parliament; leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Group; former Prime Minister
Vaira Vike-Freiberga (Latvia), Former President
David Vines (UK), Professor of Economics, Oxford University
António 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), Chief Executive, Zeus Capital Managers