The European sovereign debt crisis could contribute to the breakup of the European Union if not properly managed, said EU adviser and anti-bureaucracy czar Edmund Stoiber in an interview with Die Welt magazine on Monday. “We live in a borderless continent. This is a big challenge,” said the former Bavarian prime minister (translation ours throughout).

To solve the euro crisis, Stoiber advised swift and automatic sanctions against any EU member nation that violates the financial standards set for it by Germany. “We ultimately give this money, not because we are a noble knight, but we give this money out of personal interest,” said Stoiber. “Therefore, we must impose conditions.”

As to what these conditions should be, Stoiber explained that no nation should be allowed to run an annual deficit greater than 3 percent of its gross domestic product. He also said that no eurozone nation should be allowed an existing debt level greater than 60 percent of its gdp.

“A bailout only makes sense if the indebted counties, such as Greece, may be prescribed a relativization of sovereignty,” said Stoiber. “In Portugal, or Italy, we know already that the de facto sovereignty is limited. … The wages in these countries cannot increase; taxes will have to be increased.”

Unlike most other European leaders, Edmund Stoiber is very blunt and specific concerning the consequences awaiting eurozone nations that do not get their financial house in order. “When a state refuses to bring its finances into order, then it should be possible for the other members of the eurozone to exclude it,” Stoiber said last year.

As Richard Palmer wrote in his article “Euro Crisis Proves Need for Visionary Leader”: “The fiasco is proving to the world that if the common currency is going to survive, euro nations will need to give up many of their powers to one leader. Not a committee that takes weeks to take action, but a strong individual who can act quickly.”

As our editor in chief Gerald Flurry wrote back in February, “Germany will use this crisis to force Europe to unite more tightly. In the process, some eurozone countries will be forced out of the union. When that happens, the pundits will say European unification is dead, that the European Union has failed. Don’t listen to them!

“Every country that leaves the EU puts us one step closer to seeing the German-led 10-nation European superstate.”