Not so much because I was asked to give an outline of economic and monetary cooperation as from the Treaty of Rome to the present day, but particularly to outline the near future. Outlines which are essential to make the euro a lasting success. Travelling from Rome to Amsterdam, where the Maastricht Treaty will shortly be reviewed, we will have to make several stopovers.
However the low growth environment looks set to persist, and the World Economic Outlook of the IMF published earlier this week indicates that global growth is unlikely to be much better than was the case in 2012. Recent political and banking sector developments in Cyprus, Portugal, Spain and Italy illustrate just how fragile the recovery remains.