Countries like Germany or the Netherlands are consistently running surpluses, while others like Greece, Spain or Portugal have produced nothing but deficits. These imbalances have been symptomatic of the differences in competitiveness between the individual countries. A topic which has made a comeback recently is the question of whether surplus countries should also contribute towards redressing these imbalances.
But at the end of the day, structural problems in the deficit countries were what brought about these imbalances – so that is where the adjustments must take place. We must ensure that the other countries make their economies as competitive as Germany’s, is how ECB President Mario Draghi put it. Doing the exact opposite simply wouldn’t work.