regulations and the administrative burden. the average marginal tax rate on labour in the euro area is high and hovers around 15 percent points above the rate in the us 6. labour regulations such as employment protection legislation hinder job - to - job mobility in europe. as a result, workers in the eu stay in the same job for more than 10 years on average, compared to less than 7 years in the us 7. concerning the administrative burden, the average cost of starting a business with up to 50 employees in the euro area is estimated to be 10 times higher than in the us, according to the world bank. that is, if entrepreneurs have not given up starting a business in the meantime, as it takes on average 27 days to set up a new business in the euro area, compared to just 5 in the us 8. i always had respect for entrepreneurs, but it ’ s getting larger in view of the red tape they have to cut through. some reforms have recently been undertaken, both at the national and the european level. for example, personal tax wedges have been reduced and employment protection legislation has been relaxed in some european countries. and i fully support the current eu commission initiative for measuring the cost of existing legislation and reducing the administrative burden on companies with 25 percent by 2012. furthermore, the adoption of the european services directive by the european parliament in 2006 will contribute to a level playing field in the services sector. this will foster competition in the services sector, which is needed given the lacking productivity performance. however, although these reforms are a step in the right direction, more reforms are needed to improve productivity growth in europe. aging europe is aging more than for instance the us and china. let me give you some figures to illustrate this. currently there are on average 23 retirees for every 100 workers in europe, in 2050 this will be 48. in the same period, this so - called old - age dependency ratio will increase to 34 in the us, and to 39 in china 9. thus, the relative share of workers in the population of europe will be smaller than in the us and china in the coming decades. this will threaten europe ’ s competitive position. although all european countries are aging, there are large differences across europe. for instance, italy is aging more rapidly than the netherlands. concerning aging in the netherlands, let me have a closer look at the two underlying demographic trends. first of all, we have fewer children. until the mid 60s, dutch women gave birth

insights on concentration risks into a practical instrument are on - going. one option that is being looked into is a quantitative concentration limit, either absolute or relative. this limit would then be subject to supervisory reporting, disclosure or an additional capital buffer. and in case of a breach of the limit, a range of supervisory measures could be considered, such as a mandatory notification in accordance with the large exposures framework or a deduction of the excess part of the concentrated position from the bank's capital. if this concentration limit were to become part of the prudential framework, it could well be phased in to give you, banks, time to make the necessary adjustments. i do want to stress, though, that our ideas on concentration limits are very much in the proposal phase. de nederlandsche bank is looking forward to comments on this proposal and to the results of any consultation rounds on the eba discussion paper. these could in turn help us to improve the proposal. so far, i have discussed climate and environmental changes as a source of prudential risks. however, some banks also consider these changes, and the related changing stakeholder preferences, as an opportunity to change their strategy and business model. for example, i find it promising to see that a number of banks are committing, 4 / 6 bis - central bankers'speeches themselves, to net - zero initiatives. such as the banks that choose to align with the paris agreement by signing the commitment statement of the net - zero banking alliance. institutions that have signed this statement have 18 months to do a number of things. they need to identify operational and attributable green house gas emissions from their lending and investment portfolios. and then they need to set specific targets, for both 2030 and 2050, so that they can align with the trajectories towards net - zero in 2050 or earlier. to achieve these targets, banks might need to adjust their business model and their range of products and services. or they may need to adjust their decision - making process and thus adapt their governance structure and risk management procedures. it is important that banks provide qualitative and quantitative disclosures to support their commitments. as mentioned earlier, the recent ecb assessment shows that banks do not fully meet ecb expectations on disclosure of c & e risks. and this is where the final risks i want to mention today, occur. reputational and litigation risks. these risks follow from an increased stakeholder awareness for a netzero society