Courtesy of Mish.
Yesterday, Finland’s foreign minister said “Finland must face openly the possibility of a euro-break up“
“We have to face openly the possibility of a euro-break up,” said Erkki Tuomioja, the country’s veteran foreign minister and a member of the Social Democratic Party, one of six that make up the country’s coalition government.
“It is not something that anybody — even the True Finns [eurosceptic party] — are advocating in Finland, let alone the government. But we have to be prepared,” he told The Daily Telegraph.
“Our officials, like everybody else and like every general staff, have some sort of operational plan for any eventuality.
Mr Tuomioja’s intervention is the bluntest warning to date by a senior eurozone minister. As he discussed the crisis, the minister had a copy of the Economist on his desk. It had a picture of Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, reading a fictitious report entitled “How to break up the euro”, with a caption: “Tempted, Angela?”
“This is what people are thinking about everywhere,” said Mr Tuomioja. “But there is a consensus that a eurozone break-up would cost more in the short-run or medium-run than managing the crisis.
“But let me add that the break-up of the euro does not mean the end of the European Union. It could make the EU function better,” he said.
What Consensus?
I have to wonder “what consensus” the Finnish foreign minister is referring to when he says “eurozone break-up would cost more in the short-run or medium-run than managing the crisis”.
Consensus of nannycrats? Of politicians who bet their career on saving the euro? Of the Southern eurozone countries?
His second thought is far more believable: “Break-up could make EU function better”.
Indeed nearly anything would be better than the eurocrats headed by Eurogroup president Jean-Claude Juncker and European Commission president Jose Barroso.
Finland Distances Itself From Tuomioja’s Comments
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