François Villeroy de Galhau: Little time left to wake up - can we reconcile Europe with speed?
Speech (virtually) by Mr François Villeroy de Galhau, Governor of the Bank of France, at the 2026 Eurofi High Level Seminar, Nicosia, 27 March 2026.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
This Eurofi is especially meaningful to me, as it will be my last as Governor of the Banque de France; after 18 meetings in which I have had the privilege to participate, thanks to David Wright and Didier Cahen. I will therefore take this opportunity to express my gratitude to Eurofi and perhaps express myself even more freely today. Like all of you, I deeply regret not being able to meet in person in Cyprus. From Cyprus, birthplace of Zeno of Citium, the founder of Stoicism, comes a timely lesson: we need lucidity about what we cannot change, and determination regarding what we must change. The conflict in the Middle East, which I will not address directly this morning, is one reason more to act stronger and faster.
Let me be straightforward: we Europeans don't have much time left to wake up. The question is not the "What?": we Europeans already know what needs to be done (I). The real question is "How?", and even more so "How fast": why are we so slow in delivering? Can we reconcile Europe with speed? (II).