ZAKARIA: Can you say confidently that what will come out of this crisis will be a deeper and more integrated Europe and not a Europe that breaks up in some way?

MONTI: I am confident and I would even say that the Greek crisis, if we take it since the first manifestations in early 2010, has confirmed very vividly that Europe becomes adult and stronger through crisis because we may be able or unable to ultimately solve the specific crisis in Greece, but in the process we have achieved a much higher degree of ex ante coordination of national fiscal policies.

We have put in place firewalls to reduce contagion effects. We have -- I mean -- the ECB in its autonomy has been able to find new techniques of intervention. So clearly, the governance of the E.U. has been improved by the Greek crisis.

Now, hopefully, one would like to see improvements in the governance of the E.U. without all times have a crisis as a trigger.

ZAKARIA: Mario Monti, pleasure to have you on, sir.

MONTI: Thank you very much.