On 11 June 2014, the Foundation had the pleasure of welcoming Mr Jean-Claude Trichet, former President of the European Central Bank (ECB) from 2003 to 2011, Governor of the Banque de France (1993 – 2003) and currently President of the Group of Thirty, for a conference on “The Future of the Euro Area”.
Opened by the President of the Foundation, José Maria Gil-Robles, Mr. Trichet’s lecture to an audience of more than 300 people on the Dorigny campus was fascinating.
After recalling the American origins of a crisis (subprime crisis and the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Bank) that has become one of the most serious global crises in a century, Jean-Claude Trichet mentioned the specific reasons for the European sovereign debt crisis: lack of fiscal discipline, lack of competitiveness, absence of unified banking supervision and unified financial markets, lack of structural reforms, etc.
The former President of the ECB then described the measures that had since been taken to strengthen the governance of the euro area: the Stability and Growth Pact, the Macroeconomic Imbalance Procedure (MIP), the Banking Union (prudential supervision), the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), etc. By going so far in monitoring economic, budgetary and financial policies, the former President of the ECB claims that de facto political union has been strengthened.
In addition, some European countries have made economic and social efforts, “adjustments” that are already beginning to bear fruit, particularly in regaining credit. The euro zone has resisted, and is still attracting as it expects Lithuania to join in early 2015. Finally, the ECB and the national banks played their part and took heavy decisions.
Jean-Claude Trichet does not deny the question of the legitimacy of European action, even if he relativises it in the light of certain surveys which indicate a great lack of confidence in national institutions. However, he suggests that the European Parliament could indeed play a greater role in the governance of the euro zone, perhaps starting with being able to play a role of arbitration between the European institutions and a state likely to be fined. Hence the subtitle of the conference “an economic and fiscal federation by exception”, unlike a full and complete political federation such as the United States of America, at least in the medium term. Because in the long term, in response to a question from the public, Jean-Claude Trichet maintains his more global federal vision, which has already been set out in the past.
Opening of the conference by José Maria Gil-Robles
Lecture by Jean-Claude Trichet
Debate with the public