But I am positive that if we learn from the sovereign debt crisis and do not falter in our efforts to push enough piles into the right parts of that tricky ground, the European monetary union can be preserved as a place of stability that is worth living in.
In the first 15 years since the euro was launched, people have enjoyed a stable currency. The average euro-area inflation rate was 2.0%, which is very close to the ECB Governing Council’s definition of price stability (“below, but close to, 2%”).