When our great-grandchild­ren look back at the past 100 years of European history they are likely to remember Jean Monnet and Robert Schuman, fathers of the European Union, or Lech Walesa and Mikhail Gorbachev, destroyers of communism. However, when they turn to the first decade of the 21st century there will be little to impress them. They will see the EU brought to its knees by recession , with no trans­form­ational leaders to rekindle its spirit. They will see that strategic thinking was in short supply, protectionism flourished and there was no common immigration policy, single market or common monetary policy.

Crisis times call for great leaders and projects that create hope. We call on the EU leaders to show leadership and launch a “big bang” euro area expansion to introduce the euro in all 27 member states by 2012. Such a bold decision would give a credibility boost to the enlarged eurozone, accelerate replacement of the dollar by the euro as the global reserve currency and breathe new life into a united Europe.