The Greek financial crisis and the risk of contagion are threatening the stability and future of the eurozone.

Former vice-president of the European Commission Lord Brittan explained that the long-term financial regulation of the eurzone countries was "still very much an open question".

There is no difference of fundamental approach," he explained, but "there may be differences between the French and the Germans as to the extent with which they are ready to accept new budget disciplines".

Historian and author Timothy Garton Ash commented that the Eurozone is "unable to survive as it is at the moment.

"Either it goes forward to become something more like a fiscal union or some of the weaker so-called Club Med member states will in effect default inside it."

"I doubt whether there is the political will to take the move forward towards a fiscal union," he said.

Looking back on the historical importance of the Union, Mr Garton Ash commented, "I do not see the historical driving forces on that scale, but that doesn't mean the European Union will collapse."

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