Thus, my appeal for consolidation does not stem from a desire to punish past sins. Rather, the goal should be to make all euro-area countries stronger, to regain fiscal and economic policy scope for the future and to be better able to cushion adverse cyclical developments.
It is also essential to determine which coordination and convergence mechanisms between territorial regulatory and supervisory authorities can be established between the banking union and the remaining EU member states. One should not underestimate how much has been achieved in recent years. Nevertheless, the foundations of Europe’s financial architecture are still not sufficiently robust to withstand the impact of a future crisis.