, financial stability was originally envisaged as a national task. but the crisis has shown that it has a clear euro area dimension. the ecb will gain in importance for financial stability in the context of the current institutional overhaul of the euro area. this process needs to be democratically legitimised and the ecb needs to receive the full set of instruments and authority to fulfil its new responsibilities in independence and without risks to its reputation. today, we are called to work on a longer - term vision for europe, to rectify the recognised shortcomings and to implement a fully functioning economic and monetary union. i am convinced that we will succeed to ensure that emu can provide the stability and prosperity to the citizens of europe for which it was created. thank you. bis central bankers ’ speeches

than 200 % in others ; in the degree of local market concentration ; etc. there are many more examples, some of them influenced by long - term developments, some by entrenched behavioural differences and habits. bis central bankers ’ speeches to apply – or even try to apply – a federal or pan - european approach to such a diversified financial system requires, in my eyes, a key precondition : to have a functioning european federation in the first place. if that is not possible then we should not try to create half - baked pan - european solutions here in the area of banking – an area which is arguably more sensitive in many aspects than that of fiscal policy and fiscal transfers. if we are not careful enough, we risk repeating the difficulties of the single currency project. the euro is a currency without a state. this means nobody knows who should pay what to whom in bad times. it is for good times only. and we now all know very well that this is the biggest shortcoming of the whole project. some believe that cross - border integration is good per se, without any conditions. i tend to believe – not least because of the current crisis – that cross - border integration of national financial systems is welcome only if each of the national systems alone is and can be sufficiently sound and stable. that ’ s why we at the czech national bank are so nervous about this tendency to continue separating the powers of supervisory and regulatory authorities from their responsibilities in the area of financial regulation. these powers are gradually shifting in small steps towards those who have no direct responsibility and no pots of money to pay should things go wrong in the future. and such a system is not sustainable for future bad times. i believe this is a concern shared by policy - makers not only in our country, but also in other eu countries ( such as here in poland ) and i hope that the coalition of like - minded states has the potential to grow over time. so let me repeat : until we have a full - fledged eu federation we should not build a half - baked one in the area of eu banking. and i strongly advise paying attention to the rules being prepared by the european commission ( for instance the crisis and resolution mechanisms ), which have the potential to be out of line with this proposed approach. bis central bankers ’ speeches