The Euro Crisis: Orderly Default or Euro Exit?

Written by Peadar o Broin.

In 2012 the euro area will be faced with two broad strategies on which to secure the survival of the single currency: either a restructuring of the debt of euro area states on the periphery, in which measures are adopted to help alleviate their debt burdens; or facilitating the exit of one or more peripheral states from the euro area. This paper analyses the issues.

Peadar o Broin is an associate research fellow at the Centre for European Policy Studies and was previously a senior researcher at the IIEA. A specialist in European law, he has lectured at UCD Law School and authored many reports on the European Union, its treaties and its institutions. During his time at the IIEA, he prepared the first consolidated English version of the EU treaties amended by the Lisbon Treaty and was a regular media commentator during Ireland’s Lisbon Treaty referendum campaigns.

This paper forms part of a series of working papers on the euro crisis by leading Irish commentators.