Out of the mouths of babes - has an 11 year old solved the European debt crisis?

An 11-year-old boy has been highly commended for his imaginative entry to a competition to find a credible plan for a euro exit.

Jurre Hermans was among 452 candidates who submitted entries to win the £250,000 Wolfson Economics Prize. Although his idea was not among the five shortlisted, Jurre received special mention from the judging panel and will receive an €100 gift voucher, the Telegraph reported.

Jurre's plan suggests the Greek people could exchange their euros for new drachma at the bank, which the Greek government would then redistribute to creditors so they could get "a slice of the pizza".

"The Bank gives all these euro's to the Greek Government. All these euros together form a pancake or a pizza. Now the Greek government can start to pay back all their debts, everyone who has a debt gets a slice of the pizza.

"You see that all these euro's in the pizza's go the companies and banks who have given loans in greece," Jurre's entry stated.

Jurre's plan also addressed a potential capital flight from Greece: "The Greek people do not want to exchange their Euros for Drachmes because they know that this Drachme will lose its value dramatically," he said. "They try to keep or hide their euro's. They know that if they wait a while they will get more Drachmes.

"So if a Greek man tries to keep his Euros (or bring his euros to a bank in an other country like Holland or Germany) and it is discovered, he gets a penalty just as high or double as the whole amount in euros he tried to hide!!! In this way I ensure that all Greeks bring their euros to a Ggreek bank and so the Greek government can pay back all the debts."