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"France and Germany have had intense consultations on this issue over the last months, at all levels," a senior EU official in Brussels told Reuters. "We need to move very cautiously, but the truth is that we need to establish exactly the list of those who don't want to be part of the club and those who simply cannot be part.”

The “elite” euro would be fewer countries that would pursue greater economic and political integration.

Sarkozy, in an address to students Tuesday, said that some members of the EU were moving ahead faster than the other 27 countries in the EU and the euro would have to adjust, according to the L.A. Times.

Senior policymakers in Paris, Berlin and Brussels raised the possibility of some countries leaving the euro zone, according to Reuters. The remaining countries would push toward deeper economic integration. The integration would include tax and fiscal policy.

While the change has reportedly been discussed in theory, it has not moved to operational or technical discussions.

If pushed, an overhaul of the EU would be opposed by many members.

"This will unravel everything our forebears have painstakingly built up and repudiate all that they stood for in the past sixty years," an EU diplomat told Reuters. "This will redraw the map geopolitically and give rise to new tensions. It could truly be the end of Europe as we know it.”

EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso told the L.A. Times that splitting the euro would have grave economic costs. Barroso said that Germany’s GDP could contract and one million jobs could be lost if an “elite” euro zone is created.

The idea of certain countries having to leave the euro was brought up at the G20 summit in Cannes last week. Merkel and Sarkozy both said that Greece might have to leave the euro in order to maintain long-term stability, Reuters reports.

The aim in certain countries dropping out would be to reshape the euro along the lines it was intended—to have strong, economically integrated countries sharing a currency.

"In doing this exercise, we will be very serious on the criteria that will be used as a benchmark to integrate and share our economic policies," a senior EU official told Reuters.

A senior German government official told Reuters that the new euro would have fewer countries and the decision-making process would be sped up.

Some officials told The Daily Beast that talks about an “elite” euro was just a rumor and not true. The officials said forcing countries to drop out of the euro would destroy the system.

"There have been no conversations between French and German authorities at any level on decreasing the size of the euro zone," a French spokesman told Reuters.

Some officials, however, told the L.A. Times that a treaty change would be formally discussed at a summit in Brussels on Dec. 9.

"This is something that has been in the air for some time, at least in high-level talks," said one EU diplomat to Reuters. "The difference now is that some countries are moving forward very quickly ... The risk of a split, of a two-speed Europe, has never been so real."

To reach associate news editor Hannah Madans here.