"We need a common treasure," said the president of the European Commission – The Economic Journal

Two decades after its creation, the euro has become "the second world currency," said Jean-Claude Juncker. The future of the construction of the European project marked the last part of the speech of the President of the European Commission on Wednesday, the last working day of the forum of the European Central Bank (ECB) in Sintra.

Juncker ends his term in October and the successful one will lead the Commission at a time when "our European economies are developing", the "citizens of the European Union (EU) feeling the difference". "But there is still work to be done," he said.

According to the speech delivered the day before by the ECB President Mario Draghi, the future of the European project is, above all, the completion of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), said M Juncker.

"I know that we have to supplement the EMU to support our single currency in order to give more value to the real economy," said the president of the Commission. "But the ECB can not do it alone," he said, citing a dialogue between EU institutions for the future of the European project.

The conclusion of the banking union is of particular importance in the construction project of the EMU, which "is as robust as ever," said Mr Juncker. "But the deposit guarantee fund is needed to complete the banking union," he stressed, still requiring "simpler tax rules" as well as stabilizing the eurozone.

The next step for EMU – and for the banking union – will be marked by strengthening the central bank's skills for Europe. "We need to set up a common cash pool to build a euro as a safe asset over time," said the Commission president.

In the financial context, the path towards a continuous European construction has already been outlined and has already begun to take effect. "The ECB (…) has helped to reduce non-performing loans to pre-crisis levels and has boosted European banks' capital buffer by more than € 234 billion since 2014," said Juncker. "So, with the merging of capital markets, we are helping companies get the credit they need," he said.

The euro zone will expand in the next few years years

It did not reveal how much or when, but Jean-Claude Juncker said that "in the coming years, more Member States will join the euro area", at a time when a Brexit without agreement is to more and more likely.

The President of the European Commission spoke about the economic strength of the EU, which will affect the Brexit but that it will recover with the enlargement of the euro area.

"The euro is currently the world's second largest currency," he said. "Without the UK, the eurozone economies account for 85% of the EU's GDP, but more members will join the eurozone in the coming years," he said.