Breaking up the Euro? "Europe can handle it and move on," say Erin Burnett

The euro passed the dollar Friday amidst rumors that Spain may request financial assistance to help its debt crisis.

In FORTUNE magazine's latest edition, CNN's Erin Burnett contemplates bringing back 17 separate currencies – the aftermath may not be that bad.

Europe: Is it time to break up this marriage?

This summer trips to Europe opened my eyes to something: There's a lack of passion in Europe for keeping the euro. Yes, the pain of a breakup would be severe. But many of the poorer southerners of Europe don't seem to feel that they need "Europe" anymore.

That, at least, is the way it appeared to me after spending time recently in Malta, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium - and even the Berlin airport. These Europeans are proud of being Maltese and Sicilian. Proud of being citizens of greater Europe? Not so much.

Sure, the euro has helped the poorer Southern European nations. Take Sicily: When Brussels mandated that European Union countries get 20% of their power from green sources, entrepreneurs - and the Mafia - jumped at the opportunity. Press reports refer to the Sicilian Mafia as "lords of the wind" after bosses took a piece of the more than $5.6 billion worth of green-related subsidies that Brussels doles out (some of those subsidies may fall victim to the financial crisis). As a result of the temporary largesse, Sicily is Italy's top producer of wind power. Hey, where there's a subsidy, there's a taker.

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