One important benchmark for the whole process was the endorsement by the European Council, in October 2010, of the recommendations by the Task-Force on economic governance led by President van Rompuy.
As I noted earlier, personal savings, when they exist are uncomfortably low and this is partly due to our adoption of the spend/spend culture of the U.S. and Western Europe. This has implications for the high and increasing level of personal debt. Our low level of financial literacy also shows up in our understanding of financial transactions or our rights as consumers.