look like other successful currency areas. maybe it will never match their degree of symmetry with regard to policy integration. but perhaps some findings about our perception of beauty can provide a little encouragement. while symmetry appears to play a role in whether we consider a face to be attractive, researchers have found that this is only part of the story. apparently, it is the little deviations from the norm, the minor asymmetries, that render a face truly beautiful. but we still have a long way to go before europe ’ s citizens perceive emu as truly “ beautiful ”. i am now looking forward to discussing with you the future of our monetary union. thank you for your attention. bis central bankers ’ speeches

it really is an illusion to separate liability and control without undermining the stability of monetary union. and there is no getting around the fact : a combination of national sovereignty and common solidarity can pose a risk to the stability of our monetary union. a large measure of solidarity certainly helps a country in crisis to cope in the short run. but, allowing a national fiscal burden to be shifted onto the community of all member states will weaken incentives for sound fiscal policy in the long run. the underlying economic problem here is known as the “ tragedy of the commons ”. this is a situation in which every individual tries to reap the greatest benefit from a given resource. let ’ s bis central bankers ’ speeches take the example of overfishing : just as fishing by the crew of one fishing boat reduces the number of fish available for others and threatens the entire fish population in the long run, excessive public debt harms the euro area as a whole. rising debt in one member state drives up longer - term interest rates for all euro - area countries. and if the excessive debt of one country poses a threat to the financial stability of the entire euro area, the viability of the whole project might be called into question. the point of the tragedy of the commons is that it is, from a certain narrow point of view, entirely rational for a single fishing vessel to catch as many fish as it can, thus destroying the basis of such economic activity for others and for future generations. so, what we have here is a classic coordination failure. 2. emu ’ s architecture ladies and gentlemen, in their report on completing emu, the five european presidents compare the monetary union with “ a house that was built over decades but only partially finished. when the storm hit, its walls and roof had to be stabilised quickly ”. however, after all those quick fixes in recent years, it needs to be decided how the house should look in the future, and if i may quote the five presidents again : “ it is now high time to reinforce its foundations ”. the latter is certainly true, but you can come to very different conclusions about how to construct those foundations. to find out how the euro area could develop, we first need to take a closer look at the special terrain occupied by europe ’ s monetary union. what sets our monetary union apart from other currency areas? i think the difference can be summed up in a single word : asymmetry. emu unified monetary policy. but