Soros: EU Unprepared for a Country’s ‘Inevitable’ Departure

According to billionaire financier George Soros, it is "probably inevitable" that a country will end up leaving the euro zone. When that happens, he said Sunday, policymakers had best have a Plan B in the works to avoid economic collapse in the European Union (EU).

Reuters reported that, over the weekend, Soros spoke at a panel discussion in Vienna, Austria, on the subject, and pointed out that there was a basic flaw in the joint currency: there was no joint treasury or true political union to back it up. "The euro had no provision for correction. There was no arrangement for any country leaving the euro, which in the current circumstances is probably inevitable," he was quoted saying.

While he did not specify any country as the "inevitable" one, he did say that survival of the EU was of "vital interest to all," and that there had to be provisions to prevent complete destruction of the body—provisions that needed to be devised now.