The VoxEU author is arguing that debtor nations -- Greece, et al -- will inevitably default within a few years, and would be much better off doing so by redefining their sovereign debt out of existence by rewriting their domestic laws.

Since, under a Eurobond system, they would not be at liberty to do so, any haircuts would have to be negotiated with creditors (Germany and France), who would be in a much more powerful position.

However, an EU (and a Eurozone) which sees member nations defaulting on each other is at a dead end in terms of integration, and would not seem compatible with progress towards fiscal and political union.

It seems to me that the optimal outcome involves both debt reduction and economic assistance to the debtor nations, which is only feasible within a deeper economic union which would enable co-ordinated industrial policy...

OK so am I dreaming? Is the Juncker bonds scheme (let's hope that name doesn't catch on) all about protecting the creditor nations and their banks?

_{It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II}