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The Lessons of the crisis

The Lessons of the crisis

2010. 06. 15.

The experience of the past two years shows that gravity of the crisis depended mostly on the performance of the governments of the region. In Member States where the national government succeeded in conducting a more prudent and more disciplined action, there was actually no serious fallback; on the other side, lack of responsibility clearly proved disastrous in the context of the economic downturn. At the same time, mortgage problems and concerns about the rise of default probabilities were also present — although for quite different reasons — in the Central and Eastern European region; problems were partly related to exchange rate volatility and the fact that a large part of the mortgage loans had previously been contracted in foreign currencies.Experience also shows that new Member States which are already in the eurozone have clearly become less vulnerable. For this reason, joining the eurozone remains a priority target and should remain the driving force of all future economic strategies designed by the countries of the region.

At European level, our main tasks consist now in defining common solutions that provide opportunities for all Member States, regardless of being inside or outside the eurozone. Such solutions should imply parallel actions like:

-          introducing  economic governance, stronger economic cooperation at EU level;

-          speeding up  the necessary reform of the financial services sector whilst paying attention to its impact on the different regions of the EU in order to avoid imbalances;

-          launching the Europe 2020 Strategy for job creation, greater competitiveness and better conditions for SMEs, finding the place for the two main pillars of the EU common policies, namely for the CAP and the cohesion policy in it.

Without these basic preconditions, it is not possible for us to overcome the crisis and ensure our common success. With regards to budgetary policy and discipline, it has to be emphasized once again that the basis of statistical data delivery needs to be strengthened in all Member States, in order to ensure a higher level of credibility, reliability of macroeconomic and budgetary data as well as of transparency. Sincerity in the field of communication and solidarity among the Member States has to become the solid foundations, upon which the community of destiny of all European nations can and shall be built.