As during the transformation process in eastern Europe, policy makers need to win people’s hearts and minds for these reforms. We must learn to think [and argue] in terms of gains rather than in terms of losses. In this respect, policy makers in the EU countries can learn a thing or two from the transformation countries.
What we need now is not a little bit of reform here and a little bit of reform there. Like the transformation countries had, we need a coherent approach to reforms. The Bundesbank mapped out such an approach for Germany in its paper “Ways out of the crisis” earlier this year. The German government’s “agenda 2010” reflects the new approach to reforms.