Vaclav Klaus Calls on Greece to Exit Euro for Its Own Good

Czech President Vaclav Klaus is pictured here during his visit to Bulgaria on March 27, 2012. Photo by Sofia Photo Agency

Czech President Vaclav Klaus has joined a chorus of voices, claiming Greece's exit from the euro zone is the best solution to the current dead-end.

"There is no imminent solution to the euro zone sovereign debt trap," Klaus said in a public address following the NATO summit in Chicago.

"The long-lasting problems in Europe have been irresponsibly, widely underestimated... This debt crisis is only the tip of a much bigger, much deeper and much wider iceberg," Klaus told the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

Speaking a day before European leaders gather at informal talks to discuss the crisis and look for ways to boost economic growth, Klaus decried the "European experiments both with the continental wide, artificial, non-genuine unification and with the continual undermining of the market economy."

In his words Greece has fallen victim to an economically imbalanced arrangement and now is being punished for that.

"It would be much better for Greece to leave the euro zone, which is almost not allowed, impossible and so on."

Klaus acknowledged that a Greek exit would have significant consequences, but said it's an issue of deciding which would be a "bigger mess."

According to him the sovereign debt crisis was "an inevitable consequence of one currency, one exchange rate and one interest rate for countries with very dynamic parameters."

Establishing a monetary union was a political decision taken without any attention being paid to economic fundamentals, he said, adding that there was insufficient solidarity among the members for the arrangement to hold in the long term.

"The European politicians and their economists should have known that wrongly-constructed monetary unions are costly and do not last long," Klaus said.

Greece faces anew the risk of default and exit from the euro zone after voters rejected austerity and the terms of the country's bailout from the European Union and International Monetary Fund, plunging the country in political instability.

Greece recently won approval for a second bailout of EUR 130 B intended to help keep it afloat until 2014. Despite the implemented measures however it may need more help, experts have warned.

The Greek economy is expected to suffer a fifth consecutive year of recession this year, and has already shrunk 12% since 2008.

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