European Central Bank Chief Mario Draghi yesterday warned that the eurozone is “unsustainable” without stronger political and financial ties, building on discourse made by his predecessor Jean Claude Trichet in the months before his tenure came to an end.

Draghi, though, has notched up the tempo by heaping criticism on political leaders for being slow to respond to the never-ending crisis, saying delays and half-measures had only made the situation worse.

This is an issue which this publishing house picked up on at the very start, when it became apparent that each time leaders met in Brussels, it was just a case of papering over the cracks. All solutions seemed temporary, half-baked and never really looked like they might have any impact on the situation despite the back-slapping and smiling faces. It seemed more like the victory was in actually achieving some form of consensus, rather than the final outcome itself.

Draghi was addressing the EU parliament, and said that while the ECB had done what it could by lowering interest rates giving out €1 trillion in emergency loans to banks. This, however, cannot fill the vacuum of the lack of action by national governments, he said.

He is right. Europe needs to stop making excuses and face up to the fact that nothing has been done to stem this crisis completely. Band-aid after band-aid, that is all we have seen.

Europe needs to acknowledge that Greece has not lived up to its obligations. It cannot. Because of the sever austerity measures it has imposed, it cannot hope to generate economic activity and is sliding further and further, rather than improving.

Spain is perilously close to rupture; again. And other economies continue to teeter on the edge. He also said the euro needs a fundamental reworking of its rules and management, saying that the current system is unsustainable unless further steps are taken.

He has also suggested the introduction of a Europe-wide financial regulator – more than likely a position the European Commission would like to fill. The EC has also been vociferous of the need for more integration and it seems that it, like the ECB, is going to push for more integrated politics and financial obligations. Olli Rehn, the European Commission’s top financial and monetary affairs officer, echoed Draghi by calling for a “long-term road map”. He said there was “no easy fix if EU leaders want to avoid the disintegration of the eurozone and instead make the euro survive and succeed for its member countries, and especially its citizens”.

But, perhaps, the clearest sign of danger is the state of the euro itself: It is at a two-year low against the dollar, as investors pull money out of the eurozone.

Draghi’s latest comments highlight the problems at the very heart of the eurozone. The euro was introduced back in 1999 as a single currency with a single central bank, the ECB, to issue the currency and set interest rates. But the different national governments continued to set their own budgets and manage their widely different economies. The currency union was unable to prevent some countries from running up huge debts, and it never will, unless it is radically overhauled.