5.2  Reforming the regulatory framework  However, aside from the unsound developments in European periphery countries, the euro area’s regulatory framework also needs to be strengthened. The principle of aligning liability and control must once again be more rigorously enforced. This is because, over the course of combating the crisis, the element of joint liability has been increasingly expanded.
This, in turn, has severely disrupted the balance between liability and control. The crisis countries were granted large-scale emergency loans by other member states and the European Stabilisation Mechanism. But the Eurosystem also reacted, for example by not only lowering interest rates, but also by loosening the requirements for monetary policy collateral.