We already have a significant degree of political union in Europe – after all, we have been building the EU for more than 60 years. We have a European Parliament, which is directly elected on a proportional basis, like the House of Representatives here. We have a Council of Ministers, which represents the individual Member States, like the Senate.
We should also enlist outside specialists – external auditors – for a quantitative assessment. Not only in order to restore market participants’ confidence in the European banking industry, but also to minimise reputational risk for the ECB. All supervisors in Europe are familiar with ad hoc examinations. These are precisely the instruments we should be using here.