Europe has come a long way since the height of the economic crisis that shook the region three years ago but it has a way to go to become “shock-proof,” Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem told CNBC.

“Europe is coming out of a crisis. Growth has returned to all but one of the euro zone countries and it’s picking up and becoming broader. I think we should use this current stage to become more shock-proof,” he told CNBC in Lima, where the International Monetary Fund/World Bank’s annual meeting was being held.

“In order to do that we need to extend and complete the banking union, build a capital markets union to diversify the way finance comes to our economy and we need to push forward with the structural reforms to become even more competitive.”

He also referred to the criticism Europe receives on the way it functions and addresses the problems.

“There’s been a lot of criticism about how the euro works, how the monetary union works and over time, since we started the monetary union we’ve built it up, we’ve strengthened it and so I think we’re coming into a new phase now,” he said.

Mr. Dijsselbloem appeared optimistic about the economic growth in Europe mentioning that several countries such as Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands and Baltic countries were experiencing strong levels of growth.

In order to make those growth rates sustainable, however, Europe needed to deal with the “hindrances” in its economy, he said.

“We need to cut red tape, open up markets, make sure it’s easier for people to start businesses and easier to get finance. If we deal with all these small, structural issues in our economy then I’m sure we can increase that potential growth with four percentage points.”