The European debt crisis could destroy the European Union and even throw the continent into war, says Polish Finance Minister Jasek Rostowski.
"Europe is in danger," Rostowski told European Parliament in Strasbourg, according to Novinite.com, an English-language Bulgarian news service.
Poland currently holds the rotating EU Presidency.
Debt woes in peripheral countries like Greece are threatening to spread across the continent and affect banks elsewhere.
Moody's recently downgraded French banks Societe General and Credit Agricole, and further problems in the French financial sector could put U.S. financial institutions at risk.
"If the eurozone breaks up, the European Union will not be able to survive," and war could erupt, Rostowski says.
Even if Europe doesn't descend into military conflicts, the repercussions stemming from the crisis could be harsh — even with the monetary union remaining intact.
"If it lasts for a year or two, we must be ready for unemployment levels that could be doubled in some countries, including the richest ones."
Global financial institution UBS has also said that armed conflict is not out of the question should the eurozone implode.
"It is also worth observing that almost no modern fiat currency monetary unions have broken up without some form of authoritarian or military government, or civil war," the bank says in a recent report, according to Zero Hedge.
While UBS says there is no evidence of such a doomsday scenario on the horizon, it does point out it out that "monetary union breakup is not something that can be treated as a casual issues of exchange rate policy," the bank says as reported by MarketWatch.
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