I don't think the number game is very interesting, but you have more than 17 european economists arguing for banking union (e.g. http://www.voxeu.org/article/manifesto-banking-union-economi...). That call from the 172 make a lot of noise because it went against the consensus, not because they are for the consensus.
One issue of the debate is that so much of it is covered with most moralistic arguments that are not very useful to solve the issue (Greece is bad, they must pay, Germany benefited from the Euro, they must pay, etc... the level is often that low). I think Germany's position is really hard: a breaking of the euro would be catastrophic for everyone, but particularly for Germany. OTOH, they will have to pay a big share of the damage, and long terms outlook for Germany are not good (bad demography in particular, see for example http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2011/11/how...).
One issue of the debate is that so much of it is covered with most moralistic arguments that are not very useful to solve the issue (Greece is bad, they must pay, Germany benefited from the Euro, they must pay, etc... the level is often that low). I think Germany's position is really hard: a breaking of the euro would be catastrophic for everyone, but particularly for Germany. OTOH, they will have to pay a big share of the damage, and long terms outlook for Germany are not good (bad demography in particular, see for example http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2011/11/how...).