Frank Elderson: Boosting prosperity through deeper integration Keynote speech by Mr Frank Elderson, Member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank and Vice-Chair of the Supervisory Board of the European Central Bank, at the conference “Financing Europe: a new era of…
rategic investment”, Brussels, 12 May 2026. Thank you for inviting me to speak today
Precisely 85 years ago, Altiero Spinelli and Ernesto Rossi wrote what would later become one of the intellectual cornerstones of European integration: the Ventotene manifesto. While confined under fascism on the small island of Ventotene during the Second World War, they made a radical diagnosis of the underlying causes of Europe’s malaise at the time: fragmentation, division and nationalism were preventing Europe from achieving peace, stability and prosperity. Today, Europe faces a set of interrelated challenges: growth remains too weak.
We are still too dependent on external parties for energy, technology and security. The geopolitical environment has become harsher. And the climate and nature crises are accelerating.