The monetary union is a "destiny-alliance" to whose success everyone must contribute, said Jürgen Stark, a member of the European Central Bank's (ECB) executive board.

Stark said it was important to remove internal imbalances in the euro area. He said it was first and foremost the responsibility of those countries that in the last years lived above their means and suffered competitiveness loses as a result of insufficient adjustment policy. He said these corrections would be painful but