Nobel Prize winner and former Chief Economist of the World Bank  Joseph E. Stiglitz says the 28 membership state is floundering, creating the kind of polarised politics that has not been seen since the second world war.

He says unemployment and stagnating growth is destroying Europe to the point that it could need two ‘eurozones’ employing two different currencies to save it.

Professor Stiglitz, who advised former US president Bill Clinton, insists “the foundations of post-cold war Europe are being shaken” to their core and a crisis of exponential proportions is gripping the bloc.

In a shocking analysis of the current climate Professor Stiglitz insists the European Union is broken to the point of no return.

He says growing contempt for the single currency is threatening to cause a massive split.

Professor Stiglitz said: “The euro has failed to achieve either of its two principal goals of prosperity and political integration: these goals are now more distant than they were before the creation of the eurozone.

“Instead of peace and harmony, European countries now view each other with distrust and anger. 

“Old stereotypes are being revived as northern Europe decries the south as lazy and unreliable, and memories of Germany’s behaviour in the world wars are invoked.”

In his book “The euro and its threat to the future of Europe” Professor Stiglitz offers a stark warning.

He says the original idea for integration based on goodwill following two wars, followed by the collapse of the Berlin Wall, has backfired and the political experiment now teeters on the brink of collapse.

He added: “It was a political project; it was supposed to enhance the political integration of Europe, bringing the people and countries closer together and ensuring peaceful coexistence.

“While there are many factors contributing to Europe’s travails, there is one underlying mistake: the creation of the single currency, the euro.”