Thanks to the euro, our pockets will soon hold solid evidence of a European identity. We need to build on this, and make the euro more than a currency and Europe more than a territory. I have always felt that our values, cultures and references, while national, are definitely European. Together with the French president and prime minister, and as chairman of the European council of finance ministers, I want to take our initiatives further in order to show other continents that the European way of life is diverse and humane. In the next six months, we will talk a lot about political union, and rightly so.
Political union is inseparable from economic union.
Stronger growth and European integration are related issues. In both areas we will take concrete steps forward.