revolution. it would also contribute to europe's strategic autonomy, by providing payment service providers a platform for innovation, immediately scalable at european level. moreover, since geopolitical developments make us more vulnerable to power outages and cyberattacks, designing the digital euro as a fall - back option such that it relies on infrastructure rails other to those of noneuropean card - based payments, would enhance the resilience of the european payment ecosystem. following the successful completion of the consultation phase, on the 1st of november 2023, at the governing council of the ecb we approved the launch of the preparation phase, during which we will develop and test technical solutions and business arrangements for our digital currency. the eurosystem will continue this journey with stakeholders and will adjust the digital euro design upon finalisation of the legislative negotiations that are running in parallel. in conclusion, as we navigate through these dynamic times, the euro area is proactively reacting and preparing for the changes ahead. as albert einstein said,'the measure of intelligence, is the ability to change.'let us change before we are forced to do so, and, in this way, proactively shape our future. thank you for your attention. as we approach the festive season, i extend my personal wishes for a merry christmas and a hopeful, and perhaps more predictable, 2024. 3 / 3 bis - central bankers'speeches

wolpertinger conference banking union : experience so far and future prospects remarks by the senior deputy governor of the bank of italy and president of the institute for the supervision of insurance ( ivass ) salvatore rossi modena, 30 august 2018 1. rationale for the banking union banking union ( bu ) in the euro area is the latest step in a long journey. 1 the project for an integrated and unified europe was designed right after the second world war and was ambitious but pragmatic : ambitious in the ultimate objective of ensuring peace and prosperity to the european people after centuries of bloodshed ; pragmatic because an explicit choice was made to start the process with the economy, instead of the much more challenging political sphere. still, the political value of the project was clear from the beginning. monnet called it its ‘ sense of direction ’. 2 the treaty of rome, of which we celebrated last year the 60th anniversary, was the first milestone. the project of monetary unification, revived in the 1990s after a first abortive attempt at the end of the 60s, was an even braver achievement. the euro was adopted on 1st january 1999 thanks to the efforts of statesmen and civil servants like ciampi, delors, kohl, mitterand and padoa - schioppa, all belonging to a generation that had not forgotten the wars in europe. the challenge was enormous : let ’ s not forget that many in the academic world, especially in the united states, thought the project was economically wrong and politically frail. however, for over a decade, the balance between costs and benefits appeared positive. the real challenge for the european monetary union came with the sovereign debt crisis at the beginning of this decade. prompted by the revelation of the true condition of greece ’ s public finances, the crisis rapidly evolved into a basic mutual distrust among european countries : some ( public opinion, governments, even national central banks ) started to fear that, thanks to the common currency, other countries would finance their profligacy with the money of taxpayers in the first group of countries ; the second group of countries began to blame the first group for rossi ( 2017 ). monnet ( 1955 ). imposing excessively ‘ austere ’ policies on everyone in the name of the common currency. the markets viewed those feuds as a sign that europeans no longer considered the euro indestructible and that they could call into doubt the irreversibility of the common currency. the possibility of