Mr Kawalec's points are very well taken. He has plainly given this a lot of thought.



I have only one suggestion to modify his proposal, and that is that the voluntary withdrawals from the Euro be handled at the level of city-regional economies, rather than at the country level.



That is, if Germany withdrew, for instance, it would be best if it were the most competitive city-regions -- say, the Munich, Stuttgart, and Frankfurt regions -- rather than the country as a whole.



The main advantage is that this avoids the persistence of the heavy burden of transfer payments to the former East Germany.



The least competitive regional economies in Germany should not find themselves transformed into a new "periphery," heirs to all the problems of Spain, Portugal, and the rest.



So as to spread such competitive flexibility as widely as possible, this approach could be extended throughout the Eurozone, to include the Ile-de-France (Paris), Milan, Madrid, the Netherlands' "Randstad" and perhaps Vienna.



In this way, all the weaker economies would still have access to the advantages of the Euro, without the disadvantages Mr Kawalec has mentioned.









