“We need a real European finance minister with the appropriate powers,” Blessing wrote in a guest column in Sunday’s Welt am Sonntag newspaper.

He said the recent summits between Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy had produced unsatisfactory results, opening the door to a continued lack of confidence in the markets.

The top bank manager said there were only two ways out of the current debt crisis: a return to national currencies, or fiscal unity for the European Union.

Blessing said the idea of a common economic government was the first step in the right direction, but that it was currently not being implemented forcefully enough.

“The instruments in place up till now have just bought time, but have not addressed the fundamental problems of the currency union,” he wrote.

“But if we come to the conclusion that all our efforts cannot create a stable legal and political framework for our common currency, we should not shy away from abandoning the euro,” he wrote.

He said that only strong institutions with the power to intervene in the budget sovereignty of individual euro-states would help. He said only this would force national governments to stick to financial conditions.

Blessing also suggested the EU should be allowed to impose taxes, and to construct a common debt agency to issue government bonds.

The Local/bk