Bank of France governor Christian Noyer said Friday the euro is here to stay and warned that its disappearance would be an “absolute disaster”.
The central bank chief defended the currency as the recession-hit eurozone tried to contain a growing debt crisis, with Greece battling to avert default and Spain pondering a sovereign bailout.
“The future of the euro is absolutely clear cut,” Noyer said in a speech to the annual assembly of Spain’s Association of Financial Markets in the Spanish capital.
“I have absolutely no doubt that the euro will stay in the long term future,” he added. “It is the natural continuation of the European Union, it was in the spirit of the founding fathers.”
Noyer said the benefits of the single currency were “perfectly clear”.
“People don’t realise that if the euro disappears it will be an absolute disaster,” he warned.
The French banking chief pressed European powers to set up a banking union as an urgent response to the region’s financial crisis.
European leaders agreed in October to establish a regional banking supervisor in 2013, the first step towards a banking union that would allow the European Union to directly help troubled banks.