Europe is not prepared for another recession, and the next crisis will test the limits of the European Central Bank, prospectively pushing interest rates into an even more negative terrain, according to European Central Bank Executive Board member Benoit Coeure.

Maintaining that many of the institutional problems that gave rise to the last crisis have not been fully addressed, Coeure warned that even a small recession could be enormously costly, both economically and socially.

“The next crisis could very well force the ECB to test the limits of its mandate,” Coeure told a conference in Ljubljana, Slovenia.