There is a vision that says that we have efficient mechanisms, self-regulating markets, and not to worry about it because 'we’ll make it in the end'. In my view, that is naïve. It's a blind belief in market forces".

"To offer an analogy, you wouldn’t allow traffic without any regulation, or let car drivers just do what they want. We need proper regulation."

Daianu said the corporate world was experiencing the "loss of a moral compound" that was detrimental to the well-being of the economy.

"It is ironic that the west has been preaching to the rest of the world the virtues of trust, and has been preaching good practices, when now, not only with the current crises, but with previous crises, there have been very serious breaches of what is considered to be good practice, and of the moral values which actually underpin the functioning of a healthy economy," he said

He added that current challenges, such as climate change, competition, rising food prices and energy security highlight the duty of politicians to do the right thing.

"All these clusters of challenges put additional pressures on policymakers to find a response, and if we do not find a proper, rapid enough response, people will get more frustrated," he said.

Daianu was speaking after a discussion forum held in the parliament to launch this year’s Europe enterprise challenge, a competition for students running a company as part of their higher education.

He said that today’s business students had to consider the moral values of the corporate world.

"There are many examples of people who are cynical, reckless, who don’t think about others," he said.

In his view, an entrepreneur "has to be honest, to value trust, to think about the rest of society as a whole".