community agreed to massively increase imf resources to a total of 750 billion us - dollars, with substantial worldwide contributions. already in march 2009, the eu quadrupled its balance of payments support funds for non - euro area eu member states to 50 billion eur and the eu committed another 75 billion eur ( approx. 100 billion us - dollars ) in the form of bilateral loans to the imf in order to support its lending capacity. this prompt increase of global and european firewalls constituted important stabilizing steps at this very early stage of the crisis, which were particularly important for the central and southeastern european ( cesee ) region. in a similar vein, the so - called “ vienna initiative ” had been launched already in january 2009 in order to create a framework for safeguarding the financial stability in cesee. the “ vienna initiative ” served as a forum for major international financial institutions, among them the imf and the world bank, the most important european institutions, home and host country regulatory and fiscal authorities and the largest banking groups operating in the region. the “ vienna initiative ” helped to avoid a potentially region - wide systemic crisis in the cesee banking sector. in the following years, as the crisis had not abated, european firewalls for the euro area members, the esfs and its permanent successor institution, the esm, were established and their firepower was substantially increased in order to address the challenges arising from the banking and sovereign debt crises. furthermore, in december 2011 the euro area and other eu member states committed additional bilateral loans to the imf of up to 200 billion eur ( usd 270 billion ), thus strengthening once more the imf ’ s firepower. global cooperation even went one step further and got a new political and institutional dimension. for the first time in history, the imf and the eu jointly entered into macroeconomic adjustment programs for individual eu member states. this implied that consistent and mutually agreed decisions had to be taken on the respective program financing, the initial program design including macroeconomic conditionalities as well as on program surveillance. this close cooperation between the imf and the eu, which has posed numerous challenges for both sides, has proven mutually beneficial ; in particular also due to the imf ’ s longstanding expertises in macroeconomic programs as well as its well - established international credibility. from 2009 to 2011, several eu member states outside the euro area, such as latvia, hungary and romania, were the first beneficia

, which have indeed been an interesting and equally challenging period, both for europe and for the global community. in spring 2004, the european union had just been joined by ten new member states. since then, the eu has undergone two further enlargements, with the entry of bulgaria and romania in 2007 and of croatia in july 2013, so that it now comprises 28 member states. over the same ten years, the euro area of – then – twelve members ( in 2004 ) has grown to eighteen participating countries and constitutes a milestone in the european integration process. the euro is a fully functional and internationally traded currency, which shields its individual member states from speculative currency attacks. from its start, the euro has been the second most important international currency after the us - dollar. despite the increasingly difficult environment in recent years, the relatively strong role of the euro on the global stage has remained broadly unchanged, with the euro ’ s share in global foreign exchange reserves standing at around 24 % at the end of 2012. bis central bankers ’ speeches the year 2008, however, has marked a turnaround for the global economy. the us financial market turmoil of fall 2008 subsequently triggered the most severe economic crisis since the great depression of the 1930ies. while the bretton woods institutions had to deal with a continuous series of financial crises over the previous decades, such as the mexican or the east asian financial crisis or the russian debt default in 1998, this recent wave of crises was different insofar as it affected, for the first time, mainly advanced economies. consequently, its effects were of a different magnitude and much more severe as compared to previous crises, and they are still lingering. while both the us and the euro area underwent a period of stagnation in 2008 and, subsequently, a strong recession in 2009, the euro area was hit even stronger than the us, with weaker growth in the following years and the emergence of banking and sovereign debt crises in several eu countries from 2010 onward. dealing with the crisis – a joint endeavour by the imf and europe while the imf, as most other institutions, was caught more or less by surprise by the outbreak of the current crisis, as well as by its severeness and its persistence, the crisis was weathered relatively well so far. this was accomplished thanks to an unprecedented spirit of cooperation and support, which we have witnessed since the beginning of the current crisis on the global level. already in april 2009, in response to the breakdown of international financial markets, the international