UN General Assembly
1998

presenting to its European partners some proposals to counter international financial instability. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) must naturally remain the pivot here. But the IMF must be more legitimate and more effective, working on the basis of clear, realistic, political and strategic guidelines, cooperating with other competent bodies, organizing dialogue between industrialized countries and emerging countries, ensuring the transparency of the financial system and reflecting the economic, social and political realities of partner countries — an IMF that can detect early warning signs to prevent crises from happening. Within this transformation, to which the Director- General of the IMF is making an important contribution, and also in order better to stabilize the international economic and monetary situation and to support world growth, Europe will play an increasingly important role 18 since it is finalizing the introduction of its single currency, the euro, and we are anticipating the benefits. From this period we are living through, which is so full of contrasts, consisting of unprecedented progress and of crises threatening to wipe out our efforts, in particular