Trichet also spoke of an "absolutely imperative" need to tighten up the monitoring of economies in the euro zone, in a speech against a background of renewed concern over the Greek and wider euro zone debt crisis.
Speaking in Paris, the ECB chief said that EU and national legislation for much tighter monitoring of national budgets, due to be adopted within "a few days" was "clearly absolutely imperative".
He also said it was urgent to apply the EU decisions taken on July 21 to provide Greece with a second debt rescue. "There also we have an immediate and imperative need for all of the decisions to be enacted," he told the Institut Montaigne.
He made his comments against a background of sharply renewed concern about the state of Greek finances and the wider euro zone debt crisis.
Yields on Greek and Italian 10-year bonds came under pressure today on renewed concerns about the debt crisis. The yield on the 10-year bond in Italy was 5.385%, up from 5.265% on Friday. Greece's benchmark bond traded at a yield of 17.94%, up from 17.6%.
On Friday, an audit mission from the EU, ECB and International Monetary Fund cut short its latest study of Greek finances, on which depends the next release of money from the first rescue, saying that Greece had more work to do on its crash programme to reduce the public deficit.