European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet said on Sunday that Europe needed to complete integration of its single market and structural reforms to boost growth and cut unemployment.
"We have not completed either the single market or necessary structural reforms," he said in remarks to a conference of economists in the southern French town of Aix.
"What we could achieve if we completed the single market and made these structural reforms would give us what we are seeking, which is to say more prosperity, more growth and more jobs." Mr Trichet declined to comment on questions of monetary policy and confined his remarks to the general theme of reform and market integration.
He said it appeared paradoxical that even as developed economies were based more and more on the services sector, integration of the services market in Europe was still a long way off, and he noted that galloping technological change made the issue more pressing than ever.
"The opportunity cost tied to the fact of not having a very large domestic market has become much more important than it was 10, 20 or 50 years ago," he said.
Mr Trichet said several European countries, including Ireland, Denmark and Finland, had demonstrated that it was possible to to develop more flexibility in their economies.
"Those who have understood that agility in the productive sector is essential, including in Europe, in the European Union and in the euro zone, have shown that you can have more growth, more job creation and that you can eliminate mass unemployment," he said.
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