BERLIN (MNI) – The European Union will likely move towards more
solidarity among its members, but that will also a reinforcement of the
common rules, ECB Executive Board member Lorenzo Bini Smaghi said
Friday.
In remarks prepared for a speech in the memory of recently-deceased
former ECB board member Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, Bini Smaghi reckoned
that “the future development of the Union can and will probably be built
on the ‘solidarite de fait’ created by economic interdependence.”
He argued that “the necessities of managing interdependence will —
and indeed do — lead to embryonic joint economic management: the
EFSF/EFSM/ESM has put E500 billion at the disposal of the Monetary
Union’s ‘federal’ level to manage the sovereign liquidity crisis.”
The same is true for the European System of Financial Supervision,
the central banker reasoned. “‘And for a reinforced economic governance
framework with a stronger role for EU institutions and processes.”
But solidarity must go hand-in-hand with responsibility, he
demanded, and the common European destiny requires a reinforcement and a
clarification of the common rules of the game.
“Tommaso was right: the asymmetry between a single monetary policy
and national economic policies must be transitory. Now we need to make
another step forward towards European integration,” Bini Smaghi said.
–Berlin bureau: +49-30-22 62 05 80; email: twidder@marketnews.com
[TOPICS: M$$EC$,M$X$$$,MGX$$$]
