Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank, challenged Europe’s leaders to prepare a 10-year vision for the euro and put growth at the centre of eurozone policies, a tacit criticism of efforts so far by the EU to create a fiscal union to accompany the single currency.
Urging a revival of efforts in the 1990s, when he was head of the Italian treasury and the foundations were laid for the launch of Europe’s monetary union in 1999, Mr Draghi’s call hinted at the ECB’s frustration over the loss of political momentum behind Europe’s economic integration.
While European leaders last year created a new €500bn eurozone rescue system, rigid budget co-ordination rules and a new bureaucratic infrastructure in Brussels to manage the currency union, those integration efforts have stalled amid growing voter anger over austerity measures.