Because when everything is taken into account – the national level plus the European level – Europe has a very high level of public spending as a proportion of GDP in comparison with, for example, all other G7 advanced economies.
Question: Are you satisfied with the way the ECB, the EU and the governments are collaborating and managing the debt crisis and the financial crisis in Europe? Trichet: We first have to avoid such crises and considerably improve governance. I have spoken of the necessity of a “quantum leap” in the domain of governance. That is work in progress.