Mr Van Rompuy reflected on the lessons learned from Sweden and the crisis in the 1990s, namely that it takes time to deal with the consequences of a financial crisis, but that getting through the crisis makes you stronger.
Sweden's experience in the 90s shows two things: One, it takes time to deal with the consequences of a financial crisis such as this one - there is no quick fix. Two, getting through the crisis makes you stronger. I am deeply convinced that these lessons will apply to the euro area.
The challenges ahead are still significant. We need to strengthen our banking system. In the EU, we are currently working on the implementation of the Basel III accord to enhance the resilience of our banking systems. We should do it well, but we should also not lose time.
Europe will also need to pursue its strategy to restore economic growth and job creation, especially for young people. I want to note here that this has always been on our agenda at previous summits this year and as far back as in February 2010. Many initiatives are already in the making. We are not discovering the growth agenda today.
Before the end of the year we should define the EU's seven-year budgetary framework 2014-2020. The future modernised EU budget, though it will remain relatively small as compared to Member State wealth, can stimulate thousands of investments needed to revive growth in Europe by helping it to be more competitive. Competitiveness is key in the next European budget. Even if it represents only around 1 per cent of our GDP, it amounts to €1 trillion per year which is far from negligible.
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