By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Yannis Stournaras on Thursday said the Greek debt crisis had left lessons that were newly relevant amid the military escalation in the Middle East, arguing that the conflict amounted to “an additional adverse supply shock for the global and the euro area economy.”

Stournaras, who heads the Bank of Greece, used a speech at an event of the American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association in Frankfurt to look back on Greece’s adjustment after the sovereign debt crisis, while drawing broader conclusions for euro-area governance, fiscal policy and crisis management.

Among the lessons, he said, was that “the stance of fiscal policy needs to be consistent with that of monetary policy,” arguing that Greece had paid the price before the crisis for failing to respect the Maastricht Treaty’s fiscal criteria.

Stournaras also renewed his call for more joint European borrowing, saying the European Union should issue common debt for “well-defined common European purposes of high importance,” including defense, green energy and strategic investment.

More broadly, Stournaras argued that a common European safe asset could strengthen market integration, financial stability and the international role of the euro, while insisting that such borrowing “cannot become a substitute for sound national fiscal frameworks.”

Most of the speech focused on Greece’s crisis-era experience, the social and economic costs of the adjustment programs and the country’s subsequent recovery, with little direct comment on the ECB’s current monetary policy stance.