the integration and coordination of financial supervision. of these three areas, i will next briefly focus on securities trade. a problem in the securities markets is their current lack of depth and integration. an important challenge is the fragmentation of clearing and settlement systems. it is an important factor behind the high price of securities transactions in europe. this applies particularly to trade in equities. the cost of an equity transaction across national borders but within the eu can be as much as four times the cost of a similar transaction in the u. s. it is exactly these costs that prevent the integration of equity markets. they hurt the issuer of a stock via reducing its price. the provider of financial services, in turn, faces higher costs. the infrastructure of the markets has too strong an effect on the location of transactions and businesses. in this situation, current national features of the clearing and settlement systems should be evaluated from the point of view of their future in the integrating european market.

fiscal balance and created an environment in which consumers and businesses can plan for a longer term. sound monetary policies have also been instrumental in supporting growth. • strong and transparent institutional framework. an institutional environment in which contracts can be enforced and property rights can be established promotes economic growth. increasingly, all european countries share such an institutional environment. however, the transparency international rates the nordic countries in the top ten at to the transparency and integrity of their public sector. 6 5. the importance of education and research and development so, good policies, sound institutions and some luck go far in explaining the strong performance of the nordic countries. however, by digging a bit deeper, we can see also the for a more comprehensive assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the " scandinavian model ", see e. g. chapter 4 in the eeag report on the european economy 2007, prepared by the european economic advisory group at cesifo. for instance, denmark and finland shared the top ranking, and all the nordic model countries were in the top ten, in transparency international's 2007 corruption perception index that looks at perceptions of public sector corruption in 180 countries and territories. see : http : / / www. transparency. org / policy _ research / surveys _ indices / cpi / 2007 crucial role of education and investments in r & d. the nordic countries share a long - tradition of emphasising the importance of education. nordic countries, particularly sweden and finland have high public and private spending on research and development, comparable with that of the united states. the particular character here is a close partnership between public and private sector. this has also fostered innovation in the environment of an open economy. oecd has recently publicized a third so called pisa - study. finland has performed well in all three studies. it was emphasized in the study that good performance in finland did not differ between the regions and correlated less with family background than in most countries. in a small country it is important to get all the talent resources in efficient use. the education is here the main tool. nowadays, the share of the working age population with upper - secondary education, as well as tertiary education, is considerably higher in the nordic countries than in the other eu countries on average. moreover, the participation rates for non - formal job - related continuing education and training are exceptionally high in the nordic countries. 7 the nordic economies have benefited from a well - educated labour force. the skilled labour force has contributed to a rapid diffusion of information and communication technologies,