In his ‘Concluding Remarks’ at the annual meeting of shareholders in 1988 Ciampi recalled the progress made in creating a ‘genuine, united Community that can stand alongside the United States and Japan as a point of reference in the world economy’, and concluded, ‘The major disputes about minor issues appear to have subsided: though the road ahead is still arduous, the way is now clear for progress towards the completion of economic union, which will prepare the ground for political union’.
It is to be hoped that the current European debate also dismisses the ‘minor issues’ and regains a sense of direction that will allow us – to quote Mario Draghi, one of Ciampi’s successors at the Bank of Italy – to ‘avoid remaining prisoners of incomplete 7  Strictly speaking, the European Council, consisting of the Heads of State or Government, which ‘sets out political priorities’ and has no legislative functions, is constitutionally a separate body from the Council of the European Union, and performs legislative functions in various assemblages at ministerial level.