“The crisis made brutally clear that the eurozone as initially designed was regrettably underequipped to withstand a storm, like in 2010”, Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council explained in his speech “Post-Wall Europe” at the Allianz Forum, in Berlin. Today, the existential threat to the eurozone is behind us, he stated. Saving the euro, making the eurozone sound and solid - that would be the legacy of his generation of European leaders.
Concerning critique, for instance against 'austerity', Van Rompuy argued, that some countries had built up enormous underlying problems before the crisis erupted, and that correcting those would have been far worse without the euro. Or that solving a crisis of excessive sovereign debt with more debt simply would not work. As the world we all live in is becoming a more competitive place by the day, all 500 Million Europeans are advised to stick to two core values: responsibility and solidarity.