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The high price of unemployment and difficult political decisions has been assumed and countries under supervision have stabilised. The end of the recession is timidly starting to emerge, and growth, although weak, is the focus optimism again almost everywhere in Europe.
Foreign investments are the centre of renewed interest in a Europe which is still on its feet, for a resistant and yet finally attractive euro. There would be nothing worse than giving up on our hard work now. This does not just concern controlling deficits and therefore the debt: what has worked are the structural reforms undertaken in the Member States, on the labour markets, the retirement systems, social aid, taxation - which are all factors of competitiveness, sadly neglected by European economies.
There is still a great deal of work to do if these economic solutions are also to be shared by the most reticent. It is not just the citizens who are suffering both the severe effects of unemployment and their shrinking buying power, but also and above all the decision makers who have to admit that courage pays and that wait-and-see attitudes are very costly.
The European Union has survived the crisis. To the dismay of the prophets of doom, the euro has proved that it can last, that Europe is strong. Those who have speculated about the collapse of the single currency and the Union have paid the price and the markets seem to have understood this. We must now make full rapid use of this respite and complete the reforms. No one is saying that recovery will be easy but this is the price we have to pay to recover the competitiveness of the European economy.