I welcome the euro area countries’ commitment of 11 March to transpose the EU fiscal rules into national legislation and including for sub-national levels. The ECB and, I believe, also the citizens of Europe count on the European Parliament to drive these changes forward. We are mandated as European institutions to take a broader perspective. We are independent of specific national circumstances.
And we are here to think long-term, as do our citizens. Let me borrow the words of Willy Brandt, speaking as the first Head of Government of a member state of the European Communities to address the plenary of the European Parliamentary Assembly, back in 1973.