The Stability and Growth Pact has been strengthened to preserve fiscal stability; and a new procedure – the Macroeconomic Imbalance Procedure – has been established to prevent the accumulation of other non-fiscal imbalances. Also, the European Stability Mechanism and the banking union process have filled in two serious gaps. Now, to conclude, I shall try and respond to the questions to this panel about Germany’s role in the European debt crisis and whether Germany is a reluctant hegemon. Indeed, Germany has played a key role in the response by the European Monetary Union to its financial and fiscal crisis and to the dangers this crisis has entailed for the Union and the euro. In early 2012, many analysts and politicians considered it very possible that certain BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  countries might exit the Monetary Union, thereby triggering an extremely serious crisis. Many believed the European Monetary Union was running an almost terminal risk, at least in its formulation under the Maastricht Treaty. To Germany, then. Its economy and its Government have been fundamental in facing and overcoming these risks. Without a German political stance in defence of the Monetary Union and the euro, the single currency would surely not have survived. Obviously, Germany has not acted alone, but as the euro area’s leading economy, its role has been crucial. I do not believe Germany may be said to have exercised this role reluctantly.
Luis M Linde: “The New Hegemon or Last Country Still Standing” Speech by Mr Luis M Linde, Governor of the Bank of Spain, at the Frankfurt Finance Summit 2014, Panel IV: The New Hegemon or Last Country Still Standing, Frankfurt am Main, 20 May 2014. *  *  *  As a result of the crisis, the institutional and intellectual setup of European Monetary Union is being deeply revised. Fresh views on the role of stability across several dimensions – including fiscal and macro-financial – have emerged and taken over the old approach of the Maastricht Treaty. Several players, including, indeed, the ECB, are contributing to this overhaul. I would like to review the main elements of the old institutional setup, the weaknesses revealed by the crisis and the way a reinforced culture of stability is contributing to their repair. The monetary union designed in Maastricht included, in addition to the ECB and the single monetary policy, a relatively loose governance framework for the euro area based, first, on a fiscal discipline device – the Stability and Growth Pact – and, second, on coordination for the remaining economic policies – the Broad Economic Policy Guidelines –. The setup also relied on governments, households and firms being able to internalise the stability patterns required within a monetary union and counted on financial markets penalising those who would not do so.