ECB’s Bini Smaghi, in an open letter published in La Repubblica, says European integration needs to be improved and the regions’ economic policies better coordinated.
The letter was answering criticism from Paul Krugman which had been laid out in another letter published last Tuesday, when the Nobel prize-winning economist said Europe had made a mistake adopting the euro 10 years ago.
Bini Smaghi says “We must continue to strengthen the process of integration and improve the coordination of economic and financial policies. He admits not everything is perfect in Europe but adds that process must be based on what has already been constructed, “in particular the euro.”
The ECB official says Krugman’s idea that it is best to have a single government to make decisions, rather than 16 governments, had not stopped the failure of Lehman Brothers in the Uinted States, which he described as “the most devastating decision of recent months.”
