While there are important preconditions – common across countries and substantially defined in the acquis of the European Union – for successful national economic performance, economic policy is not simply a question of converging to a single normative standard. The European Union embraces considerable variety of style within the acquis, and this variety enriches and strengthens Europe.
Such choices are political ones: we need to be aware that they exist. We should also be aware of the speed with which the conditions of macroeconomic imbalance can change quickly in Ireland, not least because of its exceptional openness. Seemingly intractable imbalances have been corrected surprisingly quickly; balanced conditions have suddenly slipped out of control.