First of all, we need a fiscal framework that would improve coordination of national fiscal policies within the economic and monetary union. The Next Generation EU fund is a big step in the right direction. It expands fiscal space across the union during a downturn and thereby allows the euro area fiscal stance to remain well-aligned to monetary policy.
The ECB was one of the first public authorities to see their potential and their risks and published a detailed analysis in 2012. 7 Despite the overall rise in the value of bitcoin since the publication of the report and the media attention it is getting, our conclusions still seem to be valid, namely, that such currencies are not (at least yet) economically important.