"It is always interesting to talk to the president of the ECB, Mario Draghi" commented the German chancellor Angela Merkel at the end of the meeting she had today in Berlin with Draghi. The confrontation lasted about two and a half hours, according to some sources: it is not known in detail what exactly the two leaders said to each other, but the very fact that they met - and that the meeting could have been decided in days and not scheduled for some time – is indicative of the desire to close ranks on the future of Europe and the single currency, in response to the winds of Frexit and also to the return of topicality of the possible exit of Greece from the euro but also to the disorderly anti-European gasps of Trump and Le Pen.
The most relevant issue on which Draghi may have wanted clarification is the idea aired by the chancellor during the recent informal summit in Malta, that of a "two-speed Europe". Draghi was asked about the matter during a hearing in the European Parliament last Monday. On that occasion he hadn't gone too far, but he hadn't seemed enthusiastic. “Perhaps the concept is still to be developed. I think it is a barely sketched vision – he said – on which I am unable to comment ”.
It was precisely on the future of Europe that Merkel made a very important clarification, explaining that there are already different speeds within it because there are countries that join the euro and others that don't join "but it's not true that I spoke of different speeds with regard to 'Eurozone, indeed the euro area must be cohesive and support all the projects launched together such as the State-saving fund": No to double speed, therefore, in the Eurozone, but possibility within the wider European Union "but not it is feasible for three states to sit down together and decide and go ahead alone, leaving others out”.
