Setting the policy rate with a clear focus on the euro area as a whole does not, however, mean ignoring the diversity in financial conditions. Since the financial crisis erupted, the ECB has adopted a number of non-standard measures to foster as much as possible a smooth functioning of the monetary policy transmission throughout the euro area.
  The current major challenges faced by a few euro area countries are mainly the result of some governments not conducting sound policies and not implementing reforms that would benefit their citizens and the European public as a whole. It is essential that euro area countries fully assume the responsibilities at the national level that derive from their participation in the euro area.