The European economy is slowly recovering but many people will feel the crisis for a long time, said Rehn in an interview with the Tiroler Tageszeitung.
Translated from the German
The German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Greece should never have joined the euro. Do you agree?
Greece has obviously not met the convergence criteria. There was statistical falsification. This is a mistake under which the whole eurozone has suffered. Now, however, it is necessary to focus on the future.
Will there be a third bailout package for Greece?
It would be premature to talk about it. In the autumn, we will send the regular mission to Greece and work together with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Central Bank (ECB). We will see if there is a funding gap and how sustainable development has become. Only when we have an in-depth analysis can we make suggestions.
In your blog you wrote that the European economy is gaining momentum. What is the biggest threat to recovery?
Complacency. There are encouraging signs, but the recovery is fragile yet. There is no room for statements such as "the crisis is over". Now it is essential to avoid political accidents and to continue the political reform policies in order to make economic recovery more stable and sustainable.
Can you understand the anti-European sentiment in Southern Europe?
I am fully aware that this sentiment exists. Had there been an easy way out of the crisis, we would certainly have chosen that one. But the crisis was the result of major economic imbalances that had accumulated over a decade. We had to take decisive action to stabilise the financial markets and prevent a free fall of the European economy. And we had to demand reforms in order to become more competitive and create jobs. Now we are seeing the first signs of recovery - even in vulnerable Member States.
The austerity policy has often been criticised. What would you do differently in future crises?
It was crucial to concentrate the costs of consolidation right at the beginning as the deficits of public budgets in the eurozone were far too high. This had led to a loss of confidence. Several member countries could no longer procure funds on the financial market. Since 2012 the situation has stabilised. Therefore, we were able to slow down the pace of consolidation.
What lessons can be learned from the crisis?
With a deep and genuine economic union, complementing the monetary union, we would probably have been able to fend off the crisis, or at least mitigate it. The founding fathers of the euro would have never thought that such a crisis can happen. But the past few years have shown that we need a more robust economic stability mechanism.
Full article (in German)
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