. europe must remain an anchor of stability in a world that appears ever more unstable and politically unpredictable. the introduction of a safe asset in the euro area is a clear and immediate objective. it is a technical endeavour, but it is also the common denominator to the three unions ( banking, capital markets, fiscal ) that must flank monetary union. by partly replacing national government bonds, a european debt instrument could help to diversify the sovereign exposures of financial institutions. it could reduce the risk of flights to safety by investors in times of market tension and enable the financial market to play an effective role as shock absorber, thereby also enhancing the effectiveness of monetary policy. it could be an instrument for funding shared automatic stabilisers within a common fiscal capacity. as i have said, it is possible to design mechanisms that enable a safe asset to be introduced with the necessary safeguards against the risk of opportunistic behaviour. but aside from the rules, the essential requirement for the viability of this solution lies in a renewed and convinced commitment by all to the european project and a willingness to pursue common solutions for common problems. grafica a cura della divisione editoria e stampa della banca d ’ italia

in the years spent in education and work, will decrease by just under three million. over the last ten years, the lack of suitable work opportunities has driven almost one million italians to move abroad, many of whom are highly educated ; by contrast, there are increasingly fewer people, often with low skill levels, who transfer from abroad to italy. adequate policies for planning migration flows, training and integration are lacking. the labour market participation rate is among the lowest in europe, especially in southern italy. the participation rate for women, equal to 55 per cent in italy compared with an average of 68 per cent for europe, is 18 percentage points lower than that for men ( figure 9 ). to narrow the gap, among other things, the obstacles that mothers face in re - entering the work force after having children must be removed. the nrrp funding for services for families is a first step in this direction. employment opportunities and the choice of whether to participate are closely connected with educational attainment, which should be raised quantitatively and qualitatively starting from secondary school, where there is still a high rate of abandonment and learning outcomes are unsatisfactory. despite the progress made, there is still a big gap between the percentage of italian university graduates and those of other european countries, even for the youngest population cohort : 28 per cent of those aged between 25 and 34 held university degrees in 2021, 13 percentage points below the european average. the interventions and the effective use of nrrp funds for schools ’ physical and digital infrastructures, for bolstering stem programmes, and for improving the selection and training of teachers can all help to increase both the demand for and the supply of high - quality education. those most in need of this are students from less advantaged geographical and family backgrounds and young immigrants, for all of whom education surveys continue to show severe difficulties, which worsened considerably during the the governor ’ s concluding remarks annual report 2021 banca d ’ italia pandemic. it is increasingly necessary for these survey findings to be used in framing targeted and consistent corrective measures. in order to achieve the hoped - for results, it is crucial for the structure of the italian economy to open to change, by taking advantage of the programmes and reforms envisaged under the plan to increase firms ’ propensity to expand and to invest in innovation and in enhancing human capital. this is particularly needed in the regions of the south, where more than one third of the population resides but that only produces just