"All in all I am an optimist about Europe; I can't believe we can have two euros, north and south. If one can't survive two cannot either," France Arhar, former central bank governor and current chairman of the Slovenian Bank Association, told a panel on the second day of the Investo Expo in Ljubljana.

But he pointed out that before eurobonds are issued, the member states need to figure out what to do with the 25 systemic banks in the eurozone, and how to implement common bank supervision and common deposit guarantees.

Another huge issue is trust. All panelists agreed that trust needed to be restored. But they stressed that the political will for a turnaround was still lacking.

Arhar said trust was also a principal reason why the yields on Slovenian bonds are high. Trust can be regained with positive expectations from politics, but the markets do not currently believe Slovenian development plans, he said.

Keith Miles, a financial consultant with strong ties to Slovenia, noted that saving the eurozone had been a series of frequent too-little-too-late measures that did not restore trust in the capital markets.

As for solidarity - who will be liable if things go wrong - Agnes Le Thiec of the Belgian CFA Institute said a poll her institution carried out among its 15,000 members showed a majority favouring joint and several liability (shared responsibility) for Eurobonds.

But Arhar said he found it difficult to believe that eurobonds would be based on solidarity. This is not in the interest of the major economies, in particular Germany.

Le Thiec also noted that joint eurobonds may be incentives for member states not to implement fiscal measures and fiscal reforms: weaker states would benefit from common insurance, but stronger states would end up paying for others.

Jean-Pierre Paelinck, the head of the World Federation of Investors, noted that eurobonds were a preeminently political project. But he called for greater consideration of social aspects.

"When very rich institutions with highly-paid delegates tell workers they should reduce their income, I don't think that was a good way to convince the people," he said in view of the EU and IMF imposing reforms in Greece.

Matjaž Gantar, the boss of investment firm KD Group, was quite pessimistic about the prospects for the euro, saying there was "too much talk without action", just as was the case before Yugoslavia fell apart.

"This behaviour is suicidal, nobody will kill us, we will kill ourselves," said Gantar, who recalled a Yugoslav-era joke that the doctor had a lot of great ideas but the patient died before he actually took action.

Both Gantar and Arhar also noted that lack of credit was stifling the economy, in particular in Slovenia.

"Wealth is generated with crediting," Gantar said regarding Arhar's remarks that Eastern European countries which have recorded credit growth were also seeing GDP growth, whereas Slovenia has negative credit growth and a stagnant economy.

Investors' Week is organised by the Pan-Slovenian Shareholders' Association (VZMD), a group specialising in representing small shareholders at annual general meetings, in conjunction with Eurofinuse and the World Federation of Investors.

As part of the conference, home appliances maker Gorenje received an award for model corporate governance in a multinational company for its liaisons with shareholders.