The president of the ECB, Christine Lagarde, outlined three scenarios for Europe in Berlin: accepting decline, fragmenting into national agendas, or deepening integration.
The president of the European Central Bank (ECB), Christine Lagarde, urged member states on Wednesday in Berlin to choose between unity or irrelevance in an increasingly hostile world. In a speech delivered at the official dinner of the Deutsche Bundesbank at the Bode Museum, Lagarde sketched out three possible paths for the continent.
According to the ECB, the first would be to accept that Europe's moment has passed and that its decline is inevitable, relying on importing technology to sustain the social model. The president dismissed this as an illusion that would leave Europe with weak growth and external dependence. The second would involve each country pursuing its national interest, an option she also deemed illusory.
“Why should Europe give up its greatest asset by allowing itself to be fragmented into 27 national agendas?” Lagarde questioned.
The third path, which she advocated, is that of integration: “choosing each other.” The ECB president emphasised that, although it requires slow negotiations and difficult compromises, Europe is now “alone together” and can only rely on itself. “If our strengths in one area, such as the single market, are undermined by weaknesses in others, like defence or fragmented and expensive energy markets, we will be easy to divide,” she warned.
Lagarde linked this choice to concrete initiatives such as the union of savings and investment to channel European savings into strategic areas, and the digital euro to preserve monetary sovereignty. She quoted former German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer: “The political and economic forces of each European country, if dispersed, count for little in world affairs; combined, they can play an important role.”
The speech concluded with a reference to the naturalist Alexander von Humboldt, whose medal is preserved in the museum: “What is difficult never seems impossible to me,” Lagarde said, paraphrasing the scientist, to conclude that the choice to build Europe is difficult but not impossible.
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