Jean-Claude Trichet quotes:

The [EU] Council of Ministers will have far more power over the budgets of member states than the federal government in the United States has over the budget of Texas.

For a small, open economy like Cyprus, Euro adoption provides protection from international financial turmoil.

I think we have to reflect on a treaty change that would permit more than surveillance, with recommendations and appropriate sanctions. When recommendations are not followed and sanctions prove ineffective, European institutions should have the capacity to impose the necessary decisions on a particular country.

I see that a number of persons might consider it appropriate to take the ECB as a possible scapegoat and I think that is not the case at all.