This integration can take time, it will not come overnight, but each politician should keep in mind that further integration is necessary. If we didn’t agree on this need and we neglected the high degree of interdependence between Member States, we would run the risk of going backwards – and that would probably be in a brutal way.
In this sense, the sovereign debt crisis acted as a wake-up call and led to substantial steps forward in European integration, including the creation of the European Stability Mechanism and the Single Supervisory Mechanism. The ECB is a federal institution where competences, such as competition and trade policies, are European, as you said.