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Italian prime minister says leaders have one week to save the euro

Mario Monti warns of apocalyptic consequences if Europe can't dig itself out of crisis

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti has long spoken of the potentially disastrous consequences of the collapse of the eurozone. He is now warning of the apocalyptic consequences if next week's summit of EU leaders fails. He says that the failure of the single currency would be disastrous for the political and economic future of Europe.

In order to achieve the desired outcome, Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti says there must be a clear sign of the eurozone's willingness to integrate further 'in such a way that Europeans know where they're going .'

In order to achieve the desired outcome, Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti says there must be a clear sign of the eurozone's willingness to integrate further 'in such a way that Europeans know where they're going .'

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Monti will be speaking with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, the newly elected French President François Hollande and Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy in the hopes that Europe's four biggest four countries can lead to a breakthrough next week.

Monti, speaking to newspaper journalists said that without a successful outcome, "there would be progressively greater speculative attacks on individual countries, with harassment of the weaker countries."

These attacks would be focused not only on those who had failed to respect EU guidelines, but on countries such as Italy which has abided by the rules "but which carry with them from the past a high debt.

"A large part of Europe would find itself having to continue to put up with very high interest rates that would then impact on the states and also indirectly on firms. This is the direct opposite of what is needed for economic growth," Monti warns.

Monti says that if the summit fails, "the frustration of the public towards Europe would grow," creating a vicious circle. "To emerge in good shape from this crisis of the eurozone and the European economy, ever more integration is needed," said Monti. If a quick solution is not found, "public opinion, but also that of the governments and parliament . will turn against that greater integration."

Monti says he sees evidence of the growing malaise "even in the Italian parliament, which has traditionally been pro-European and no longer is."

Monti made his remarks after his predecessor, Silvio Berlusconi, acknowledged that his party had bled support because of its backing for the Monti government's unpopular budgetary measures, speaking for the first time of the electoral advantage it could derive from torpedoing Monti's non-party cabinet of technocrats.

In order to achieve the desired outcome, Monti says there must be a clear sign of the eurozone's willingness to integrate further "in such a way that Europeans know where they're going . [and] the markets are convinced that, having given birth to the euro, the will [of the member states] to make it indissoluble and irrevocable is there and will be strengthened by other steps towards integration.

"There may not be - indeed, there will not be - a fully-fledged, detailed blueprint, but there will some strong elements and a short road - I hope short, a few months - to get from there to the overall project," Monti said.

© 2012, Catholic Online. Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM.

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Keywords: Mario Monti, Italy, Germany, Spain, euro, summit

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1 - 1 of 1 Comments

  1. stefanie
    10 months ago

    I personally believe Monti's position and power is not at all legitimate. The ESM, his un-elected rise to power, Europe is becoming one big dictatorship. Nigel Farage is the only politician who speaks out clearly.

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