"As concerned Europeans we urge eurozone leaders to unite", Emma Bonino et al., XII-11

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.

The Financial Times - October 12, 2011

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