sustainable and growth - enhancing fiscal policies. countries that have fiscal space should use it to foster investment. countries where debt is high should calibrate their policies so as to regain fiscal space in the future, limiting the risk they pose to their neighbours. and all countries can improve the quality of their spending. the third line of defence relates to strengthening our common toolkit – to new policy instruments that are needed to protect the stability of the currency union if shocks are too large to be absorbed by markets or national fiscal policies, and that provide a safety net against poverty and social exclusion. the first line of defence : integrated and flexible markets no euro area country features in the top 10 of the world bank ’ s ease of doing business index. many are not even in the top 30. a consequence of a less business - friendly environment is that business dynamism in europe is weak. compared with the united states, european countries have, on average, larger shares of “ static ” firms and smaller shares of both growing and shrinking firms. low business dynamism feeds and reinforces the misallocation of resources across firms in the euro area. empirical evidence shows that an increasing proportion of capital is concentrated in firms that are less productive. in italy and spain misallocation is currently higher than at any point in time before the crisis. the absence of a schumpeterian process of creative destruction weighs on innovation and growth. there is overwhelming evidence that new firms are more likely to adopt new technologies. there is a significant link between business entry rates, technology creation and diffusion, and productivity growth. new and young firms also contribute disproportionally to job creation relative to their share in employment. unclogging the innovation channel requires us to improve the ways in which our markets allocate resources, both within and across countries. in my view, there are three areas which need particular attention. efficient allocation of resources first, we need to reduce the barriers to entry faced by firms, particularly in the services sector, and we need to improve the quality of insolvency frameworks. several euro area countries lack an effective framework for early private debt restructuring. in portugal, greece and slovakia, for example, it takes more than three years to resolve insolvency. it takes less than one year in japan, norway and canada. the absence of effective insolvency frameworks also makes it harder to deal with non - performing loans. it constrains collateral enforcement and raises

the single currency : an unfinished agenda speech by benoit cœure, member of the executive board of the ecb, at the ecb representative office in brussels, 3 december 2019 it is my pleasure to welcome you here tonight to the ecb ’ s representative office in brussels. it is overwhelming to see so many long - standing companions and friends. this office was established in the midst of the euro area sovereign debt crisis in 2011. today, the brussels office is part and parcel of the ecb. it is our eyes and ears on all european matters, thanks to the unwavering commitment and dedication of our staff here on the ground. their network is essential for us to get first - hand insights and intelligence from brussels. maintaining a high level of cooperation and dialogue with our main european stakeholders is essential, as also exemplified by our successive efforts to further enhance the ecb ’ s transparency and accountability to the european parliament and to the public at large. not everything is in our hands though. diversity is a case in point. taking into account our latest decisions, the proportion of female senior managers at the ecb has increased from 9 % to 31 % since mid - 2012 as a result of our diversity strategy. but all 19 national governors are males. this does not reflect europe ’ s reality. it harms public trust in our institution and in the single currency. member states are accountable for this situation. the history of this office coincides closely with the history of my term as member of the ecb ’ s executive board, which is now coming to an end. i joined the ecb in january 2012, just a few months after the office opened. it has been a turbulent eight years, and quite possibly one of the most defining periods in europe ’ s postwar history. it has been a journey of faith and struggle, of trial and error. with the benefit of hindsight, part of the cost of the crisis reflects policy mistakes made before and during the crisis as well as the belated recognition of the flaws in the design of our economic and monetary union ( emu ). we have a duty to learn and do better. but we can also be proud of the achievements, which are clearly visible and uncontested. unemployment in the euro area has practically receded to pre - crisis levels. wages are growing at their fastest pace in more than ten years. and surveys document that the euro has never been more popular among the public than it is today. these successes did not