Open Europe held a roundtable discussion in London yesterday. One of the speakers was Professor Hans-Olaf Henkel, the former president of the Federation of German Industries, and one of Germany’s most prominent Euro critics.

Here’s Open Europe’s summary of what he said:

Professor Henkel expressed his concerns about the eurozone’s current trajectory of travel, warning that “instead of competition between member states we have harmonisation, a system of organised irresponsibility”. However, he said returning to individual currencies was not the right solution as it would lead to the re-nationalisation of economies, instead suggesting two blocs; a ‘northern’ bloc that would commit to abiding by the original Maastricht criteria and a ‘southern’ bloc which would allow its members to devalue and regain competitiveness. He concluded that by and large the German political and economic elite and media has been scared of properly debating the eurozone rescue, accusing critics such as himself of being populist and ‘anti-European’, and that it would take a “Fukushima of the euro” – noting that Merkel changed her nuclear policy overnight after the disaster – to change this mentality, and that this could be triggered by a Finnish exit from the euro.

“Organized irresponsibility.” Perfect.

Note Henkel’s remarks about a Finnish exit—Fixit. There’s been an increasing amount of chat about this of late, and it would make a lot of sense (for Finland, at the very least), but it still remains highly unlikely (and recent Russian attempts to bully Finland over cooperation with NATO make its prospects even more remote). Nevertheless, the polling data coming out of the country, not to speak of recent remarks by Finland’s finance minister (unconvincingly backtracked later) suggest that the Finns, a disciplined lot, are becoming increasing unhappy with, to use Henkel’s phrase, the organized irresponsibility for which they are now being compelled to pay.