probably just a matter of months, until the recent low inflation numbers feed into the 12 - month average rate used as a reference. i am fully aware that we still have a long and difficult road ahead, as several years of relentless efforts are needed in order to ensure a lasting fulfilment of the maastricht criteria, to make further progress in the catching - up process in the area of real convergence, as well as to push forward the structural reforms required for enhancing the resilience and flexibility of the domestic economy. bis central bankers ’ speeches banking union obviously, euro adoption automatically implies banking union membership and therefore, since romania has already set the changeover target date, joining the banking union is merely a matter of timing : should it occur on the euro adoption date or as soon as possible? there are strong arguments in favour of rapidly joining the banking union. first and foremost, i believe it is always preferable to have a voice in the setup of a mechanism the working of which will affect all eu countries anyway, irrespective of whether they are members or not. participating will also have the added advantage to have first - hand knowledge of the decisions made in this context and thus avoid having partial and / or distorted information communicated by parent banks in accordance with group - level agendas. the second argument relies on the fact that, in many of the non - euro area new member states, the domestic banking systems are dominated by banks headquartered in the euro area – in the case of romania, for example, euro area banks account for 80 percent of the banking system ’ s assets ; the same is true for the czech republic and hungary ( where foreign - controlled banks hold above 80 percent of total assets ) and to a lesser – though still significant – extent in bulgaria and poland ( around 70 and 60 percent respectively ). subsidiaries and branches of these banks are often important enough so that they are deemed systemic at the host country level, even though their balance sheets are small relative to their parent entities. non - euro countries are therefore already well integrated into the european financial market. clearly, the objective of preserving the integrity and ensuring the smooth functioning of the european financial market is not something that concerns only the euro area, but is relevant at the eu level. in this context, it is hardly surprising that romania embraced the banking union idea – it makes perfect sense that the reality of a significant, even systemic, cross - border presence in the banking systems of non - euro area countries is matched

mugur isarescu : romania, the eu and the euro area opening speech by mr mugur isarescu, governor of the national bank of romania, at the " the future of the euro area and its enlargement " conference, bucharest, 17 october 2017. * * * professor sapir, ladies and gentlemen, the national bank of romania ’ s board and i are honored to extend a warm welcome to all of our distinguished guests attending the conference this morning. allow me to wholeheartedly welcome our speaker, professor andre sapir. it has become quite a tradition here, at the national bank of romania to invite well - renowned lecturers to address the audience on important topics of the day. this morning, we are privileged to listen to prof. sapir ’ s lecture on the future of the euro area and its enlargement. please, allow me to briefly introduce to you prof. andre sapir. he is a well - known name among european economists. he is an active member and senior fellow of bruegel institute in brussels. prof. sapir has a rich academic career and important contributions in the field and study of economics. i wish to express my appreciation for his diligent work dedicated to the strengthening of the conceptual underpinnings of the european union and the euro area ’ s economic and financial systems. for those of you who are not familiar with bruegel institute in brussels let me pinpoint a few facts. bruegel was set up in 2005 and has emerged as an important independent and non - doctrinal european think tank focused on economics. according to their mission statement, it aims to improve the quality of economic policy with open and fact - based research, analysis and debate, targeted at improving the quality of economic policy. at the same time, we are proud that the national bank of romania has been a member of bruegel think tank since 2016. returning to our guest speaker : andre sapir is a professor at the universite libre de bruxelles ( ulb ), he also teaches “ international economics and european integration ” at the solvay brussels school of economics and management. prof. sapir has a phd from johns hopkins university in baltimore, where he studied with the famous trade economist bela balassa. he was elected member of the academia europaea and of the royal academy of belgium for science and the arts. he was a visiting fellow at the international monetary fund, the world bank and the world trade organization.