stability. so we would call upon the authorities to prepare the changeover in the best fashion possible, with extreme care. we would also tell the people, the customers, the households : be vigilant, in a market economy prices depend on supply and demand. they depend on the vigilance of the consumers, who must have the maximum level of vigilance at the moment of the changeover, this is truth. what should our government do against the inflation? again, structural reforms are absolutely of the essence, because they improve competition and competition is necessary to care for stable prices. it is a crucial element which permits to have stable prices. so we would encourage the government of slovakia to pursue reforms. we would also ask all governments, not particularly in slovakia, but including slovakia, to strictly respect the stability and growth pact. it is essential for the coordination and solidity of the euro area. it also permits to avoid inflationary pressures. as you look back on the two years of our current government, do you think it does enough in fiscal policy and structural reforms to fight against inflation? one should always encourage governments to go in this direction, so i would say yes, number of structural reforms has been made and that is encouraging for the future, but this is not a reason for complacency and it has to continue very actively. slovakia just adopted a law which allows the government to regulate the prices in some cases. do you think it is necessary to have such law for slovakia because of the euro? it has to be examined very carefully. i have to say, at this stage i do not have the complete analysis of this legislation, we will look at it very carefully. again, what counts essentially in a market economy is the level of competition, that you have between the producers, and the vigilance of the consumers themselves so that they exert maximum pressure on competition to work well. there was a suspicion about insider trading in slovakia before second change of central parity. did you hear about it and what do you think? i heard about it because it was public. i have no opinion on that. we considered in the ecb that it was a matter to be examined by the authorities in slovakia. what impact could have the financial crisis on eurozone and what impact it would have on slovakia after entering euro area? slovakia is part of the global economy and slovakia is in the global economy, as is the euro area and of course the usa. so i

significant efficiency gains for t2s participants. the close involvement of csds has been a crucial factor throughout the project so far, and it will become even more crucial from now on. i wish to join the president in congratulating those who have been involved in the project ’ s governance. t2s is an entirely new concept. it is unique and nothing comparable has ever been done before. from the inception to the go ‐ live, it will have required the engagement and collaboration of numerous different stakeholders, from the industry, from central banks and from other public authorities. effective cooperation is key to the success of t2s. decisions need to take into account several different points of view, while ensuring that the final outcome meets the objectives set in pursuit of deeper market integration in europe. this complexity is the reason why we had to develop a specific governance structure to manage the project. let me dedicate a few words to the governance bodies that have made the t2s framework agreement a reality : the t2s programme board and the csd contact group. the t2s programme board has run the daily management of the project up to now, regularly reporting to the governing council of the ecb. i would like to thank the members of the t2s programme board for their dedication and commitment over the past three years. they bis central bankers ’ speeches have coordinated effectively the several work streams constituting the project and fulfilled the mandate they were given by the governing council. they have made an enormous contribution to making the project a success. my gratitude also goes to the members of the csd contact group, the main forum for the framework agreement negotiations, which has played an instrumental role in ensuring that a mutually satisfactory agreement could be reached. following the signatures of the t2s framework agreement in june, the role of these two governance bodies will be assumed by their successor bodies : the t2s board and the csd steering group. in this new phase of cooperation, the t2s board will concentrate on the implementation and testing of the t2s platform, and then on the csd migration to the new settlement environment. the csd steering group will articulate and coordinate the views of the participating csds within the t2s governance. a major change to the current setting is that the chair of the csd steering group will be a csd representative. together, the two groups will cooperate to make sure that t2s delivers on its promises. i trust they will continue