hurry, but he will not succeed in advancing to paris ” ; 20 march – “ napoleon will be in paris tomorrow ” ; 21 march – “ emperor napoleon is in fontainebleau ” ; 22 march – “ yesterday evening his majesty celebrated his arrival in paris. the jubilation cannot be described ”. at the end of his speech, referring – with an irony that shows a keen sense of human nature – to how the public might change its future perception on his activity, professor issing added : “ i can only hope that in my modest case the reversal of the sequence of events does not end where the news on napoleon started ”. for me, a european of latin origin living at the gates of the orient, this excerpt does not reflect the so - called german rigidity whatsoever, but rather a healthy, accommodating sense of humour, which is part, i hope, of the new european culture. turning back to the euro area tensions generated by the situation in greece, the future definitely holds new surprises in store for us. one never knows who the next ogre may be … no matter how much uncertainty surrounds any prediction, i would rather conclude my presentation today on a positive note, by recalling the words of jean monnet, one of the founding fathers of the eu project, who thought that “ europe will be forged in crises, and will be the sum of the solutions adopted for those crises ”. i only hope that policymakers in europe have learned their lessons well enough from treading the desert of the crisis so that it has taken us closer to that promised land professor issing was mentioning. if i may continue along the lines of the bible, as the tablets of law preceded the arrival in canaan, we should not forget that we will get there no sooner than all club members have not only formally accepted, but also made their own, the rules underlying the monetary union. bis central bankers ’ speeches

implies, in the words of professor issing, a “ permanent commitment ”. from this perspective, the two types of convergence are mutually reinforcing : nominal convergence provides the stable macroeconomic environment that fosters real convergence, while the latter lays the groundwork for sustainable nominal convergence by reducing the economy ’ s exposure to asymmetric shocks and containing differences in the transmission of symmetric shocks. it is, however, of the essence that the pursuit of real convergence gains should not be governed by a short - term vision, in which case they would come at the cost of macroeconomic imbalances. ii. is romania prepared for erm ii? professor issing is going to speak today about the global currency war, about whether we are indeed witnessing a genuine clash of currencies, as well as about the consequences of the massive exchange rate swings. it is a topical issue, also relevant to romania, because the reshaping of the relations among major global currencies – including on the background of the ecb ’ s recent quantitative easing – complicates the task of identifying the equilibrium exchange rate of the leu suitable for erm ii entry and thereafter for euro adoption. technically, the adoption of the single currency as of 1 january 2019 would imply joining erm ii in 2016 h1 and the minimum two - year stay. aside from the difficulty of setting the central parity, erm ii participation calls, however, for a certain preparedness of the economy as well, considering the risks inherently posed by a target - band regime. the need to minimise such risks and the requirement to fulfil the maastricht criteria by the end of the second year of erm ii participation render all the more important the completion of major economic policy adjustments ahead of adopting this exchange rate regime. i am mainly referring to removing the sources of repressed inflation ( the relevant example being the completion of the energy market deregulation ), of quasi - fiscal deficits ( by restructuring lossmaking state - owned enterprises ), as well as other sources of future budgetary pressure ( for instance, the unavoidable expenditures to modernise road infrastructure ). there are also monetary adjustments that need to be carried out ahead of erm ii entry, namely finalising the process of bringing minimum reserve requirement ratios in line with euro area levels. the large volumes implied by the cut in reserve ratios and the potential impact on the exchange rate call for a gradual approach to this process, possibly