Jean-Claude Trichet, president of the European Central Bank, has called on the European Union to take bolder steps towards controlling fiscal and economic policies, suggesting a long-term goal of establishing a European ministry of finance.

In a speech outlining his vision for the future of European economic and monetary union after the eurozone crisis, he called for medium-term measures that would allow EU members to veto national economic policy decisions if they endangered eurozone stability.

“There is no crisis of the euro,” Mr Trichet declared in his capacity as chief guardian of the stability of the common European currency. While he avoided any detailed reference to negotiations for a new rescue package for Greece, he called for a drastic change in the system of economic governance in the eurozone, going beyond “the dialectics of surveillance, recommendations and sanctions”.