guy quaden : cashssp – the cash single shared platform remarks by mr guy quaden, governor of the national bank of belgium, on the occasion of signing the cash single shared platform contract between bank of finland and the central banks of belgium, luxembourg and the netherlands, bank of finland, helsinki, 16 march 2007. * * * dear governor, dear erkki, dear colleagues, first of all, let me thank you for your kind invitation and for organising this event. the eurosystem is an entity which has no equivalent anywhere in the world. for me, the creation of the ecb did not raise any doubts on the usefulness of the ncbs. in fact, the reverse is true. luxembourg, the only country which did not have its own central bank, had to create one just before the transition to the single monetary policy. nevertheless, our integration into the eurosystem has obviously influenced the life of our institutions. i think on two changes which are not necessarily apparent to the outside world. the first is due to the fundamental change in the actual role of our ncbs, which now participate in the management of the world's second most important currency. the decisions taken in frankfurt are taken on a collegiate basis by the governing council. this means that every governor of an ncb must be properly prepared to deal with all the issues considered at that level. they concern not only the single monetary policy but also the eurosystem's other spheres of activity, such as financial stability and payment systems. in recent years, our ncbs have therefore extended and strengthened their analysis capacity. a large proportion of our staff is nowadays involved at various levels in the preparation of these decisions " taken in frankfurt ". the investment in resources is substantial, and so is the resulting enrichment of the job content of our employees. the second change concerns operational aspects. one of the eurosystem's basic operating principles is a high degree of decentralisation. our ncbs remain the contact points between financial institutions or economic agents of our countries and the eurosystem. however, the concept of decentralisation has evolved since the eurosystem was first formed. to quote the words of the eurosystem's mission statement : " we are committed to good governance and to performing our tasks effectively and efficiently, in a spirit of cooperation and team work ". this is further elaborated in the organisational principles, which state " that potential synergies and economies of scale shall be identified

data for the twelve countries of the euro zone but we must not ignore that a country like finland ( and more generally the nordic countries in the eu ) has booked in the most recent decade performances in the field of growth and employment rates which are absolutely comparable to those of the us and are much better than those of countries like, for instance, germany and italy. finally, communication must also be improved. the transition from the pre - reform to the post - reform equilibrium conditions normally takes time and we must recognise that within this period some uncertainty may occur. for this reason the implementation of social reforms requires strong leadership and a timeless explanation effort. we have to convince our public opinion that our countries would be better off - with more growth and more jobs - if we could deliver the reforms of the lisbon agenda.