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Giving Northern Europe a veto over Southern Europe's budgets will not hold a monetary union together. The euro zone will continue to need the weaker countries to stomach decades of high unemployment to grind down wages.

Countries themselves need to do everything possible to remain in the euro zone.

The euro area must not be treated as an 'opt out' from the European Union.

I can understand countries don't want to join the euro, but they cannot impede the consolidation and strengthening of the eurozone.

Without Greece, it is not possible to preserve the integrity of the European phenomenon.

It is true that no member state can be required to make payments to others. But if countries want to offer voluntary assistance, as in the Greek case, this isn't only allowed, but it's also in Germany's interest. We all benefit by ensuring the stability of the euro zone.

We cannot allow the bankruptcy of a euro member state like Greece to turn into a second Lehman Brothers.

There is no better protection against the euro crisis than successful structural reforms in southern Europe.

Europe and the euro zone have no reason, rationally, to push Greece out of the euro. But this is a system in which many parties, many countries, many governments, many electorates participate and we could have events which, rationally, are not controllable.

It is obvious that the monetary union among 17 very different European countries does not work. As an economist, I know that the Eurozone is not an optimum currency area, as defined in economic theory.