till now, been a blank spot on the map of the bundesbank ’ s representative network. and as for the question of whereabouts in africa to base our bundesbank representative, there ’ s simply no getting round south africa – the most developed economy in africa, a country that boasts abundant natural resources, and the only african member country of the g20. your country is fertile ground for the private sector. it has a diversified industry and a wellregulated financial sector with a recognised and independent central bank. because of your ability to promote political and economic stability in southern africa, german companies use your country as a springboard into the african market, notably into the countries of the southern african development community. today sees the deutsche bundesbank introduce its first representative to south africa. my visit to celebrate this event is not just an acknowledgement, on the part of the bundesbank, of the economic importance and potential of south africa. it also marks the advent of a frequent exchange of information on financial and monetary policy issues with the aim of better understanding the economic and financial interests of each country and of facilitating dialogue in international forums. within this broader objective, the deutsche bundesbank and the south african reserve bank intend to cooperate closely for the purpose of promoting capacity building by each party and of supporting the formulation of policy in both countries. to this end, on 28 february 2016 the south african reserve bank, represented by deputy governor mminele, and the bundesbank, represented by me, signed at the g20 meeting in shanghai a memorandum of understanding defining the scope of a cross - border cooperation between our two central banks. we will start by jointly undertaking two research projects : one that aims at exchanging best practices in bank stress testing, and another where we will explore how to cooperate more closely on g20 issues. and that is yet another reason why it is beneficial for our representative not to be located too far away from the sarb. on that note, i am delighted that the bundesbank is today presenting ms jenny kilp as its first representative to south africa. ms kilp graduated from liebig university in gießen with a diploma in economics, and after gathering several years of experience in the academic world, joined the deutsche bundesbank in 2004. since then, ms kilp has been an expert in the bundesbank ’ s directorate general financial stability, where she was in charge of policy issues regarding the international monetary fund ( imf ).

10 years of romania ’ s eu membership : looking to the future liviu voinea, deputy governor, national bank of romania 26 october 2017 ten years after romania ’ s eu accession, the world has changed dramatically : the global financial crisis of 2008 - 09 led to the revision of rules in the international banking system, to growing social discontent with major consequences in terms of flourishing populism and protectionism, as well as to a reshuffle of maps – be they geopolitical, military or economic. uncertainty is running higher today than prior to the crisis and the room for quantitative easing policies based on stimulating demand has narrowed considerably. looking ahead, both the european union and romania need structural reforms. as regards the eu : many steps have been taken so far at institutional level : stability and growth pact, crd iv ( capital requirements directive ), banking union, srb ( single resolution board ), ssm ( single supervisory mechanism ), esrb ( european systemic risk board ). when needed, monetary policy undertook – in europe as well, similarly to the us, uk or japan – to escape recession and deflation and to foster renewed economic impetus. a challenge to the eu is to maintain the pace of economic growth as the ecb gradually exits from quantitative easing. another challenge facing the eu is to manage brexit properly and avoid other exits, which would question the very essence of european identity. the eu should continue and complete institutional reforms, by finalising the banking union, the aspects regarding the operationalisation of edis ( european deposit insurance scheme ), by setting mrel ( minimum requirement for own funds and eligible liabilities ) for banking groups ; moreover, the eu should move towards a fiscal union without debt mutualisation, should leave less room for discretion and comply with rules once they have been adopted, it should clarify the fine balance between the consolidated microprudential supervision of banks and national accountability in terms of resolution. but maybe the most important factor for the cohesion and coherence of the european project is the success in safeguarding the four fundamental freedoms : the free movement of capital, goods, services, and above all persons within the union. a union that would waive these principles would no longer be the union that was established in 1957 and that romania joined 10 years ago. as regards romania : romania has accomplished a lot in the past ten years : nominal convergence, real convergence in part, financial stability, it has gained market confidence and has implemented structural reforms.