willem f duisenberg : the euro - a new currency for europe dinner speech delivered by dr willem f duisenberg, president of the european central bank, at the bank of thailand on 19 december 2000. * * * ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests. may i first say that it is an honour to be invited to say a few words to you this evening about europe ’ s new single currency, the euro. i have to admit that one would not normally think of a currency as being a particularly likely or interesting subject for a dinner speech. for the euro, however, i think i am correct in saying that this is not the case. indeed, the euro is a currency quite unlike any other. it is not a national currency. instead it is a supra - national currency created by a monetary union of 11, soon to be 12, sovereign member states creating the second largest monetary area in the world. it is also a very new currency, still less than two years old. it does not yet circulate in the form of banknotes and coins. not surprisingly, therefore, the euro does indeed attract a great deal of public attention. it is notable, however, that different observers seem to perceive the euro in very different ways. some focus their attention almost exclusively on the exchange rate, overlooking the fact that the ecb ’ s principal aim is to maintain price stability and not a fixed exchange rate. others seem to consider the euro purely in terms of a political or economic experiment. they fail to notice that it is already a fully functioning single currency. this only serves to convince me that, even two years after its introduction, there is still a need for the euro to be explained to the public at large. and, this is perhaps all the more so outside europe where understanding of european integration and policy - making is, not surprisingly, more limited. therefore, i very much welcome this opportunity to say a few quite general words to you about what the euro is, how it works, and what it means, both for the euro area and for the world at large. * * * let me first say that one should never try to understand europe ’ s new currency in isolation or as a currency which was merely introduced on 1 january 1999. in fact, the euro is just one, albeit an important, part of the process of creating an economic as well as a monetary union in europe. this process began already a decade ago. similarly, this " economic and monetary union

commission on regulatory aspects that need to be addressed. let me now turn to target2, the new rtgs system for the settlement in real time of predominantly high - value euro payments in central bank money as a perfect example of the ecb ’ s contribution to more integrated and harmonized financial markets. target2 provides a single integrated platform to replace 20 decentralized technical target platforms. it has been working very well from its start and provides the core, integrated and borderless infrastructure that europe needs. to give you a flavour of the scale of its service, in the first week after completing final migration target2 processed 1. 72 million payments amounting to a total of 16. 5 trillion euro. target2 is a practical example of a successful delivery by the eurosystem and banks, working together, of integrated infrastructure which embodies the process of harmonization. i also wish to congratulate the banque centrale du luxembourg and the luxembourguise banking community on this occasion for their remarkable contribution and excellent preparatory work, and for helping to pioneer the migration to the new system in november last year. i would like to turn now to another large integration project – namely target2 for securities, or t2s, as it is commonly known. in contrast with the current fragmented scenario, t2s will deliver a single technical platform to provide very secure and real time delivery versus payment for all classes of european securities against central bank money, replacing dozens of local platforms. this will create a single pool of securities, available to market users and service providers through their chosen csd. with t2s, the concept of cross - border settlement in europe will disappear. t2s will integrate the security settlement infrastructure as well as embody harmonization in important areas such as common interfaces, common set of rules for intra - day settlement finality, a common daily timetable, and common messages. these features are an immediate contribution to the elimination of 6 of the 15 so - called giovannini barriers. alexander schaub - european commission : “ removing regulatory barriers to international finance : pointers from the eu single market ”. dublin, 30th march. this will – of course – create substantial gains for the financial sector, but also for the society as a whole, through a reduction in costs and a better allocation of resources. there is no doubt that the economic gains will be substantial. t2s will contribute to increasing competition, more transparent pricing facilitating overall the trading activity. since t2s