all the other citizens of the euro area. the internal and external dimensions of europe today, none of us are just frankfurters or germans, or in my case, parisienne and francaise. all of us in europe form part of a bigger community : the european union. and we, too, have to decide how we want to organise ourselves internally and how we want to relate externally. on both fronts, some difficult questions are now being asked. at home, we hear voices questioning the value of european integration and the need for us to go on working together as a union to be stable and prosperous. globally, we face a world where the rules - based order is weakening, old and new powers are rising, and climate change is becoming the pre - eminent challenge of our age. in this uncertain environment, it would be easy for us to cling to the status quo, to hope these challenges will simply pass with time. but i fear this won ’ t be the case. so, i would like instead for us to ask – proactively and positively – what kind of europe we want to be in this new world. and to my mind, the answer has two parts. first, recognising how much european integration already offers us internally ; and second, acknowledging how much more we can achieve externally if we cooperate in the right way. 2 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches the value of our internal integration is not just measured in euro. europe is a symbol of who we are and who we aspire to be. the eu and the euro embody our common commitment to peace, to openness, to democracy, to justice. and they shape how we see ourselves : more than two - thirds of citizens now cite their european identity alongside their national identity. at the same time, integrating through our single market does bring us real economic benefits. according to one estimate, the eu ’ s gdp per capita would be as much as one - fifth lower today if no integration had taken place since the war. 2 and it is our common institutions in the eu that secure those gains – as events on the global stage currently demonstrate. global trade tensions are arising, essentially, because of perceptions of unfairness – be it over state support for industries, undercutting of labour standards or currency manipulation. but none of those things are possible within europe – by design. that ’ s because we have built a common court to which individuals and governments can appeal if they are treated unfairly.

jamie b stewart, jr : developments in the us payment and settlement system and the federal reserve ’ s interest in the securities settlement system remarks by jamie b. stewart, jr, first vice - president and chief operating officer of the federal reserve bank of new york, before the securities industry association t + 1 foundation conference held in new york on 24 october 2000. * * * good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. i am pleased to join you at the sia ’ s t + 1 foundation conference. this conference provides an excellent opportunity to review plans that have been announced for converting to a t + 1 settlement cycle for securities transactions. implementation of t + 1 would represent a significant change in the payment and settlement environment. before commenting on this arrangement, however, i would like to stand back for a few moments and focus on some of the plans under way to improve the functioning of the payment and settlement system in the united states. in addition, i would also like to discuss briefly the federal reserve ’ s interest in the securities settlement system. there can be no doubt that a sound and effective payment and settlement system is critical to ongoing confidence in the us financial markets and to the continued health and competitiveness of the us financial sector. in an environment of rapid technological change and rising trading volumes such as we face today, it is essential to make certain that the integrity of the payment and settlement system remains intact. to this end, a number of initiatives are currently in progress to help ensure the continued efficiency of the payment and settlement system in the united states. let me be a bit more specific about some of the planned improvements to the infrastructure of the financial system that we expect to be implemented in a very short time. the first is the cls bank project, the continuous linked settlement bank, which has been under discussion since 1995. the owners of the cls bank are in the process of building the bank ’ s systems and getting supervisory approval to begin operations in the fall of next year. the purpose of the cls bank is to create a privately owned and operated facility for payment - versuspayment settlement of foreign exchange transactions. today, many foreign exchange transactions carry principal risk - that is, the risk that only one of the two legs of the transaction will be executed. this risk exists because of differences in the operating hours of large - value payment systems around the globe. however, when transactions are settled through the cls bank, the two legs of the transaction will be executed simultaneously with finality, thereby