CNBC reports that German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said he is confident the economy can return to pre-crisis levels by 2022, but that European leaders needed to work together.

“If I look to the data, we could be quite confident about the future, we have an increase in economic growth, we will have a chance that we go back to the situation we had before the crisis in the beginning of (20)22, possibly a bit earlier,” Scholz told CNBC.

“So, there is a good development we can see ... but we have to understand that we all depend on each other. And this is even so for the economy.”

Scholz said the EU has an opportunity for closer fiscal union now, describing it as “Hamiltonian moment” for the region, referencing the deal struck in 1790 by the first U.S. Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton to convert individual states’ debts into joint obligations of the federal union.