Debt crisis in Europe highly dangerous, says Brookings vice president

NEW YORK (A.A) - November 14, 2011 - Vice-President of Brookings Institute and former head of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Kemal Dervis, said Monday that the debt crisis in Europe was highly dangerous. Speaking to the AA, Dervis said that "despite the dangerous situation, Europe was indeed a strong region". When you look at Europe, you can see that the situation there is not as bad as it seemed, Dervis said. The crisis in Europe stems from the imbalance in the Euro Zone, Dervis said. If the EU states argue that they were nation-states, then it would be difficult for the Euro to continue as a common monetary unit in the medium run, Dervis said. And, if the EU citizens realize that they may lose the Europe that they got used to, political support for European integration may increase, Dervis said. In case the new governments in Greece and Italy do not succeed, this would lead to a serious recession in Europe and unemployment would increase. In such a scenario, the whole globe, including Turkey, would be negatively affected, Dervis also said.