Lorenzo Bini Smaghi, a member of the executive board of the European Central Bank (ECB), on Friday described the vision for European co-operation set out by Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, a former member of the ECB executive board and an instrumental figure in the birth of the euro, who died last December.

At a conference in memory of Padoa-Schioppa at the European University Institute in Badia Fiesolana, Bini Smaghi said: "Tommaso belongs to that group of personalities who played a decisive role in