In a recent interview with the Belgian daily De Morgen, Paul de Grauwe, who is the economic adviser to EU Commission President José Manuel Barroso, said that the euro will collapse in the absence of a political union.

Prof. de Grauwe argued that the euro had damaged Italy's economy and that without political union within Europe the euro will collapse over a period of 10 to 20 years.

I agree with Prof. de Grauwe that the Lisbon process, which is the Commission's backbone in its bid to make Europe more competitive, "is best buried". The whole process, for that matter, is based on the wrong diagnosis. "The social security system that has been designed gives people too many incentives not to work. They can easily interrupt their career and leave the labour market early. For many people it is financially unattractive to work. So we shouldn't be surprised that economic growth is subdued."

What really bothered me was the following statement made by Prof. de Grauwe: "Do we still need the European Union? I start to have doubts about that. It is sufficient that countries open up their economy. You don't need to do that in the context of the European Union".

It had been argued that "the euro is a bad thing for the Italian economy. I'm afraid that Spain is also evolving in the same direction". Well, focusing on and analysing such a statements by none other than the economic adviser to the President of the European Commission, if what he warns us about will happen, then we are likely to face a big problem indeed.

Prof. de Grauwe also said that the only way to mitigate the problems brought about by the euro is by developing a political union. I hardly believe that such an idea could materialise, as I am on record as saying in previous articles dealing with the EU.

Prof. de Grauwe asks: "Now that nobody appears to want that political union, you can begin to wonder whether monetary union was such a good idea. I hardly dare predict that, in the longer term, the monetary union will collapse. Not next year, but over a time frame of 10 or 20 years. There is not a single monetary union which survived without political union. They have all collapsed. You invariably get big shocks. A monetary union becomes very fragile without a political framework. With the exception of a Don Quixote-like Guy Verhofstadt (Belgian Prime Minister and author of The United States Of Europe), I see nobody who is pushing the case for a political union".

The only viable way for Europe is to alter its strategy and focus on the only financial option open, a large free trade zone. It's an illusion that a political union can be realised within Europe in the near future. Political unification has failed and that is a big problem for the currency union that is in danger.

Is the euro conversion unit in Malta considering this shocking analysis made by the EU Commission President's economic adviser or will the Prime Minister and the Junior Minister of Finance simply continue with the conversion programme?

At least we know, and I have confirmed this myself, that Prof. de Grauwe isn't the sort of person who, like Gunter Verheugen had done, would find it convenient to come to Malta, appear on Xarabank and fool (as many people would say) the Maltese citizens prior to the country becoming a full member of the EU. Prof. de Grauwe was interviewed and stated the plain truth. I read the article and felt I should let the Maltese and Gozitan people know that Italy's economy has been damaged by the euro and Spain is about to face the same predicament.

In the circumstances I do need to know from the horse's mouth whether the euro will damage or not the Maltese economy and if somebody should try to make fun of such a statement let him/them know it is now more than high time he/they should be stopped.

Dr Farrugia, MP, is the Labour Party's main spokesman for justice and a member of the OSCE Parliamentary Asembly.