, experience so far has not revealed any discernible impact on borrowing costs for the countries concerned. given their more limited use in the past, very little experience has so far been gained with the use of collective action clauses in the actual resolution of sovereign debt crises. ukraine, moldova and uruguay used such clauses in the context of bond exchanges in order to bind in the minority of creditors that would otherwise have objected to the bond exchange. besides this progress with collective action clauses, i am pleased to note that work is proceeding on the development of a code of good conduct. i have suggested myself some time ago that there should be guidelines for the behaviour of debtor countries and creditors regarding information sharing, dialogue and close cooperation in times of financial distress. such guidelines embedded in a code agreed between countries and creditors might help to prevent liquidity problems turning into a deep financial crisis with serious repercussions for all parties involved. they would also improve the handling of debt restructurings, if they become unavoidable. discussions are currently taking place between emerging market issuers and private sector representatives on the main elements of such a code. i would like to encourage all parties to be as active and constructive as possible. it is clear that this initiative can only lead to improvements in crisis prevention and resolution if the main stakeholders, i. e. emerging market issuers and private sector representatives, fully “ buy into ” the process. the official sector would play a catalysing role in that context. to sum up, important lessons have been learnt and significant changes have been introduced also in the area of crisis management. that being said, implementation of the agreed principles still remains a challenge. closing remarks ladies and gentlemen, we are living at the beginning of the twenty - first century in a world which has been very profoundly transformed during the last fifty to sixty years since the bretton woods institutions were set up. in a way, what we see today is for a large part made of dreams of the second half of the forties and the fifties of the twentieth century becoming reality : • the falling down of the iron curtain, the european unity marking the end of the dramatic political and conceptual divide has been the emblematic illustration of a world more united at a global level as far as values, principles and economic rules are concerned ; • the very rapid development of emerging countries and of countries in transition permits the catching up towards a better standard of living of a large proportion of the poorest citizens of the world located in china,

that the economic recovery is still weak and is only gradually strengthening. so, at the moment you do not see any need to act? our monetary policy decisions are gradually finding their way into the provision of credit and the real economy, even if only slowly. we therefore want to keep a steady hand. we would only see ourselves forced to act if there was a fundamental change in the economic situation or the monetary stance was materially altered because of developments in the markets – for example, in the event of a sharp increase in long - term bond yields. so far, i am not worried by what i am seeing. so, renewed worries about deflation are exaggerated? there is nothing in the data that supports such an assessment. in the united states, the first interest rate rise is on the horizon. would this make the ecb ’ s job easier, for example because the euro would lose value against the us dollar, or more difficult because rising us bond yields have often pushed up their european counterparts in the past? if the federal reserve comes to the conclusion that it can raise interest rates, that means that the us economy is strong. that would be good news for the global economy, and therefore also good news for the euro area. it will be crucial that global financial markets are resilient enough to deal with this change in monetary policy. and, are they resilient enough? or should we be worried that the first us interest rate rise since june 2006 will cause chaos in the markets? we have been living with very low interest rates for a very long time. the challenge is to ensure that market participants recognise that the future regime will be more like it normally was in the past – with higher interest rates. there is a risk that some have forgotten what that bis central bankers ’ speeches looks like. that also applies to us in europe. it is extremely important that our unconventional monetary policy does not damage financial markets. but that is exactly what many market participants are accusing central bankers of – especially the ecb. they are accusing them of overriding market mechanisms and ousting private investors. it is clear to me that these unconventional measures have to be of a temporary nature. if they became a permanent phenomenon, that would have much more significant implications for market structures and the profitability of financial intermediaries. then i would be worried. but i am convinced that this regime will be temporary, and that is because our purchase programme is already bearing fruit. at the moment, market participants are