And to be effective, it would need to be able to directly issue common debt – for the future – and/or raise taxes. Obviously this would be a “quantum leap” in the nature of our Union, which would require resolute political will, but this is our chance to make a real difference. *** Ladies and gentlemen, let me conclude by quoting a British citizen, who happened to be one of the greatest Europeans of the past century. Winston Churchill said in August 1949 10: “I am certain that it is within our powers to overcome the dangers still before us, if we so wish. Our hopes and our work point to an era of peace, prosperity and abundance and the inexhaustible wealth and genius of Europe will turn it once again into the very source and inspiration of the world’s life.” The European Union remains to this day a unique political and economic experiment that has no equivalent in modern history. And we have from 2017, following the electoral cycle in Europe, a unique window of opportunity. Nothing should be taken for granted, but much is open. We should not let this opportunity pass us by. Thank you for your attention. 1 “Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa: Economist, policy-maker, citizen in search of European unity”, Speech by Lorenzo  Bini Smaghi, European University Institute, Fiesole, 28 January 2011. 2 Source: European Commission, Reflection paper on the Deepening of the Economic and Monetary Union, May  2017. 3 European Commission, Standard Eurobarometer 86, Autumn 2016.
This leads to a collective suboptimal situation: according to a study by Banque de France staff7, the opportunity cost of not sufficiently coordinating our fiscal policies in the aftermath of the crisis may have amounted to 1 to 2 GDP points in the euro area. Moreover, taken together, deficiencies in the coordination of both our fiscal and structural policies may have cost between 2 and 3 GDP points between 2011 and 2013. Although our common monetary policy works well, it cannot be a substitute for economic policy coordination or for the lack of reforms. In Maastricht, our aim was to build an Economic and Monetary Union. We have succeeded in Monetary Union, but we have not delivered on Economic Union. And so, in a nutshell, a new trilemma has emerged. It now seems impossible for euro area countries to achieve their full growth potential – the first point of the triangle –, if they wish at the same time to achieve the two other points of the triangle: on the one hand, keeping the autonomy of their economic policies at the national level; on the other hand, keeping the “Euro framework” of coordination unchanged, that is to say maintaining the status quo, with a cooperation between countries based only on rules without institutions and without a common strategy. We have to drop one of the points of this triangle in order to achieve the other two.