mario draghi : 20th anniversary of the euro speech by mr mario draghi, president of the european central bank, at the session of the plenary of the european parliament to mark the anniversary of the euro, strasbourg, 15 january 2019. * * * it is with great pleasure that i am here today to celebrate with you the first 20 years of the euro. the euro is the most tangible representation of european integration that our citizens encounter, on a daily basis. it is fitting, then, to celebrate this anniversary here with the directly elected representatives of all our citizens. over the years, elected representatives and leaders here and in other parliaments have rightly recognised that ensuring economic prosperity and stability over the long term is a shared challenge that is best faced collectively. we are stronger together. with the single market, we have a powerful engine of sustainable growth to underpin our living standards. the euro has safeguarded the integrity of the single market. today, our economies are integrated to a point that was not imaginable when the euro was designed. intra - eu exports rose from 13 % of eu gdp in 1992 to 20 % today and value chains are everywhere in the euro area. the euro has produced two decades of price stability also in countries where this was a long lost memory. stable prices have fostered people ’ s confidence in the value of their savings, which is one of the conditions for prosperity. based on such confidence, firms invest and create new jobs. today most challenges are global and can be addressed only together. it is this “ togetherness ” that magnifies the ability of individual countries to retain the sovereignty over the relevant matters, sovereignty that would otherwise be lost in this global world. it is precisely in this sense that the single currency has given to all members of the euro area their monetary policy sovereignty, compared with the pre - existing monetary arrangements. it is together that we have a voice in the regulation of international financial markets ; a voice, which has been fundamental in reshaping the world financial regulation after the global financial crisis. but in some countries, not all of the euro ’ s benefits have been realised in full. partly, this is because reforms at national level are necessary, and they would be so under any monetary system, to produce sustainable growth ; partly, because the economic and monetary union ( emu ) remains incomplete. great progress has been achieved since the crisis struck, but more work still needs to be done ; and there is no alternative to a future

- 19 and the significant decline in crude oil prices. it is likely to take an extended period of time to achieve the price stability target of 2 percent, beyond the projection period. the inflation momentum is judged as being lost temporarily, and thus the bank conducted additional monetary easing in march and april. that said, as the impact of the spread of covid - 19 wanes at home and abroad, the inflation rate is likely to increase gradually with the economy improving. although it will take time, there is no change in the bank's stance of aiming to achieve the price stability target. the bank considers it extremely important in the current phase to maintain accommodative financial conditions and work toward ensuring economic and financial stability so that japan's economy can return to the path toward achieving the price stability target after the impact of the spread of covid - 19 subsides. conclusion today, i talked about the impact of covid - 19 on economic and financial developments at home and abroad, their outlook, and the bank's policy responses. the covid - 19 crisis is an extremely severe challenge for people all over the world. however, historically speaking, humankind has fought and overcome a number of pandemics, such as the plague in europe in the 14th century and the spanish flu in the early 20th century. in fact, economists have started to analyze what can be learned from past experiences. one example is shown in a paper written by economists including those of the federal reserve analyzing regional data in the united states at the time of the spanish flu pandemic. 1 according to the paper, in regions where public health measures such as requests to suspend business activities were firmly implemented, the subsequent economic recovery was remarkable, exceeding the negative impact stemming from public health measures on the economy. taking into account, for example, the subsequent progress in globalization, this scenario cannot be simply applied correia, s., luck, s., and verner, e., " pandemics depress the economy, public health interventions do not : evidence from the 1918 flu, " working paper, 2020. to the case of covid - 19. however, it is reassuring that public health measures such as those currently in operation in japan can be expected to have a positive impact on the economy from a long - term perspective. it also is important to consider how to make the most of the experience of the covid - 19 crisis. medium - to long - term growth expectations could