lucas papademos : opening address at the fifth ecb central banking conference speech by mr lucas papademos, vice president of the european central bank, at the fifth ecb central banking conference “ the euro at ten : lessons and challenges ”, frankfurt am main, 13 november 2008. * i. * * introduction on behalf of the executive board, i would like to welcome you to the fifth ecb central banking conference, taking place in the tenth year of the ecb ’ s establishment. we are delighted that this year ’ s conference has attracted many distinguished participants from academia, central banks, governments, international institutions and the financial sector. your contributions will ensure that this conference will provide insightful and thoughtprovoking analysis and generate debate on many policy issues of relevance to central banking. as we will be celebrating the 10th anniversary of the introduction of the single european currency in a few weeks ’ time, the theme of this conference is, of course, focused on “ the euro at ten : lessons and challenges ”. the introduction of the euro was a historic milestone in the process of european monetary, economic and political integration, with wide - ranging implications for the european and global economies. accordingly, this conference will concentrate on several issues of relevance to the performance of the euro area economy and financial system and on the challenges for the conduct of monetary policy and the performance of other central banking tasks in an increasingly integrated global economy. ii. the euro : economic performance and policy challenges the first session will examine the macroeconomic performance of economic and monetary union, its achievements and challenges, over the past ten years. there are several key questions to be addressed. first, has the euro and the single monetary policy established a zone of monetary stability as envisaged, with all the direct and indirect benefits this entails for the 320 million citizens of the euro area? the evidence unambiguously provides a positive answer. the euro has been a resounding success : it has established itself as a stable and credible currency, which has become the second most important currency in the world after the us dollar. a deeper analysis, however, should reveal the contribution of monetary policy, and of other factors, to this achievement and the challenges that lie ahead and must be effectively addressed in order to ensure the preservation of price stability in the years to come. a second key question is whether – or to what extent – the euro has contributed to boosting the trend growth of the euro area economy by strengthening competition, enhancing market efficiency

gertrude tumpel - gugerell : ten years of european monetary union – what is the role of national central banks today? speech by ms gertrude tumpel - gugerell, member of the executive board of the european central bank, at the austrian national bank ’ s high level evening panel discussion : “ ten years of european monetary union : what is the role of national central banks today? ”, brussels, 6 may 2008. * * * ladies and gentlemen, i would like to thank very much the oesterreichische nationalbank for inviting me and i am very pleased to be here today in brussels to speak about “ 10 years of european monetary union : what is the role of national central banks today ”. in less than one month ’ s time, the eurosystem will celebrate its 10 - year anniversary, as it was on 1 june 1998 that the european central bank ( ecb ) was founded and with it the eurosystem. as many of you know, i have had the opportunity to work and contribute to the eurosystem activities from both sides : from the perspective of a ncb, as a former board member of the oesterreichische nationalbank, and from that of the ecb, in my current position. therefore, it is a particular pleasure to speak today about the achievement of emu and the role of the ncbs in the success of european monetary policy over the last 10 years. 1. the main achievements of emu the introduction of the euro has undoubtedly been one of the most important steps towards european integration. we cannot stop if the whole world around us is in motion jean monnet wrote in his memoirs. however this is not to say that the path has been easy and without criticism and scepticism on the part of some. it has been almost 40 years since the first european consultations and discussions on a monetary union took place. the first attempt, under the chairmanship of the luxemburg prime minister werner, to establish a monetary union failed as the discrepancies in the national policies appeared still too large. it was over 15 years later that the delors group started working on a report that culminated in the maastricht treaty in 1992 that provided a three - stage plan for the establishment of a european monetary union. however, related to the difficulties faced by the european monetary system in the beginning of the 1990s the enthusiasm for a common currency at that time was still limited. today the euro belongs to