“The experience of the last eight years shows that many countries in the Eurozone are still not fully adjusted to life within the Monetary Union with a monetary policy and a single currency”. This is the rather surprising conclusion of the Communication “Reinforcement of the Euro Zone: main political priorities”, adopted together with the 2006 budget of the European economy. Despite the fact that “the Euro has by now proved itself a strong and stable currency”, difficulties, according to the Commission, are still being encountered in terms of inflation and the capacity of national economies to compete, due to their “only partial coming to terms with the implications of membership of the Monetary Union”. The lessons to be drawn from this are many: accelerating structural reforms; consolidating public finances through more ambitious policies; increasing (and not reducing, as in many countries) state funding for technological research and development, innovation and training; integrating the financial and capital markets; harmonizing services and completing the process of their liberalization. The document in fact stigmatises the conduct of political leaders who “commit the twofold error” of poorly explaining the Euro and placing all the blame for the weakness of their national economy on the single currency.
