‘Euro WILL implode!’ Economist warns Macron faces BRUTAL choice to save ‘unsustainable’ EU

Speaking exclusively to Express.co.uk, Ms Bifarini claimed the ‘unsustainable’ European monetary union could only be saved from «imploding» by more integration within the Brussels bloc.

The Italian economist argued the lack of cohesion between different economic policies of EU member states will cause not only the eurozone to collapse but the whole bloc too.

She said: “Macron’s plan is the only solution for the European monetary union and the European Union as a whole to survive.

“We’re facing a crossroads.  “The EU can either go towards more integration, more risk sharing, and also towards more cohesion of economic policies and not only those monetary, or there can’t be anything other than an implosion of the euro system — which is proving to be no longer sustainable.

“So the options are two. More integration or a breakup.”

Ms Bifarini’s warning comes as a damning report by the influential German think-tank IFO revealed some of Europe’s largest economies are experiencing a weakening economic climate.

The survey, published this month, found that the economic climate deteriorated in the euro area’s five biggest economies, to varying degrees.

The report read: «In Germany, Italy and The Netherlands experts significantly scaled back their economic expectations. There can’t be anything other than an implosion of the euro system Ilaria Bifarini «The indicator for the current economic situation also fell in these three countries.

«Despite this decline, assessments of the current economic situation in Germany and the Netherlands remain very good.

«The current economic situation indicator also remains positive in France and Spain but is negative in Italy.»

French President Emmanuel Macron has long pushed for major changes to the bloc, including a stand-alone eurozone budget and a new finance minister which he says will strengthen the economic and monetary union. But in order to make his ambitious vision a reality, he needs the support of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and her room for manoeuvre has been severely limited following her party’s poor election showing in 2017. In addition to the creation of an EU finance minister, Mr Macron also hopes to establish a mini-parliament for the eurozone in an attempt to shore up the single currency.

Mrs Merkel expressed her desire to turn his plans into policy, before her re-election in September 2017.

But after her party lost ground to the right-wing Alternative for Germany, she was forced into months of difficult coalition negotiations with the centre-left Social Democratic Party.