##tick year after year. in 2022, 50 % of our supervised entities were subject to at least one successful cyberattack, rising to 68 % in 2023, as our forthcoming annual horizontal analysis will show. in absolute terms, the number of cyber incident reports has also risen considerably. the number of cyber incident reports we received in 2023 was 77 % higher than in 2022, and we expect the total number of incident reports in 2024 to be similar. the imf also reports that the number of attacks has doubled since the pandemic. heeding the lessons from the past as we celebrate ten years of european banking supervision, i think it is helpful to recall what was happening in the world when it was set up. european banking supervision was launched at a moment when the sovereign debt crisis threatened the cohesion of the euro area, when taxpayers'money was used to bail out banks and the global financial crisis was not far behind us. as the global financial crisis fades into the rearview mirror, it seems that competitiveness considerations have taken the wheel. however, just as guardrails on a motorway do not impede drivers but ensure they stay on the road, a robust regulatory framework sets safe boundaries for banks, enabling them to fulfil their role of lending to the real economy. and it is important to recall that, just as in the movie " jurassic park ", objects in the rearview mirror are closer than they appear. the global financial crisis is not so far behind us that we should not heed its lessons. let me take this motorway metaphor even further. countless studies show that speed limits not only reduce danger but also minimise congestion, thereby reducing the overall travel time. it's a fallacy to think that higher speed limits mean faster travel, just as laxer regulation does not lead to more sustainable growth. similarly, regulatory competition across countries is more likely to lead to a race to the bottom than to a robust regulatory framework. by contrast, the lack of a complete banking union is a significant impediment to a competitive and integrated european banking sector. achieving this goal means removing unnecessary barriers to cross - border banking and enabling cross - border groups to manage liquidity and capital at the group level. a fully integrated, crossborder european banking landscape would enable banks to diversify their risks and revenue streams, not only making them more efficient but also more resilient to domestic shocks. this would support private risk sharing and enhance the overall economy's

attitude increasingly being taken to financial regulation. but this is not necessarily the case for those policies which, as i just mentioned, remain largely in the national domain but subject to european coordination. this is no coincidence. monetary policy and banking supervision are inherently technical and seemingly distant from the lives of ordinary people, whereas labour market institutions, product market regulations or the quality of a country ’ s administration are not at all like this, as they affect the everyday lives of individuals. the diversity of opinion on economic policy is a sign of a healthy, pluralist democracy and certainly not a problem. at national level, institutions and procedures exist which permit divergent views to be channelled into political decisions that leave little room for ambiguity. there are, as yet, no procedures or sufficient incentives to facilitate a consensus on the design of economic policies in a functioning economic and monetary union. this is a root cause of why the spirit of the common rules is not sufficiently respected – as there is no consensus on what this spirit ought to be. our methods of advancing european integration have so far not been sufficient to foster such a consensus – hence we need a lamfalussy moment and a shifting of gears. this would mean putting the debate on european integration back where it belongs – in the political arena. we are at a point where integration cannot and should not continue as a technical and technocratic exercise. it is now time for political leaders to take up the baton, because only they will be able to convince their electorates of the need for further deepening. therefore, as i said earlier, new economic convergence will need to be complemented by political convergence. such a process would, in an inclusive and democratic way, ensure that, in parallel to converging economically, we would develop a common understanding of economic policies in the euro area that would underpin our common rules. 8 such a political process might not lead to the best outcome from our point of view as economists. but this would be a price worth paying if, in return, the outcome is a consensus that is fully democratically legitimised. conclusion let me conclude by saying that it is not my role to prescribe how such a process could be structured. but as long as we continue to speak the language of the insiders and remain vague, we will not engage citizens in a debate on the right economic policies for the euro area. i can perfectly understand why political leaders do not want to face their electorates and defend a euro area fiscal capacity