is small in relation to the member states ’ budgets, but the states have instead agreed on binding rules and surveillance which limits their fiscal policies. the eu has often been contrasted with the u. s. one of the differences is that whereas the u. s. has its constitution, which was signed more than two centuries ago and has been remarkably stable ever since, the european approach to integration is evolutionary and gradual. this reflects political realities. the eu is not a country, but a unique union of nation states. the development of the eu reflects more the concrete challenges faced on the path of integration than any political theories. for better or worse, the union has moved forward as a result of successive crises which have always prompted the next reform. * * * the last crisis has prompted extensive changes in the governance of the eu and especially the euro area. the crisis exposed two major weaknesses in the euro area policy framework. the first is that the combination of integrated monetary policy, run by the ecb, and leaving economic policies at the member state level proved to be too weak an arrangement. despite the stability and growth pact of 1997, which was meant to guarantee the sustainability of member countries ’ finances, fiscal discipline among the member countries was not strong enough. nor was the discipline enforced by the market, which did not care very much about the growing indebtedness of some of the countries, until the crisis struck. then, of course, there was a sharp backlash and even an overreaction. the other weakness which was exposed by the crisis had to do with banking regulation. despite of the single banking market and a common currency, banking supervision had been left on a national basis. moreover, even the national authorities did not have adequate resolution powers in the way the american fdic has, for example. the crisis started an unprecedented and bold reform of both the macroeconomic policy framework and the way banking supervision and resolution are organized. let us consider the fiscal side first. the fiscal and economic policy framework has been strengthened. this has partly been done by two sets of new eu legal acts, which are nicknamed the “ six - pack ” and the “ two - pack ”. the new legal acts make the budgetary and macroeconomic surveillance mechanisms much bis central bankers ’ speeches more effective. by these acts, after the experience of the crisis, some more power has now been delegated to the commission. furthermore, the members signed the so called fiscal compact. this is an intergovernmental treaty whereby the

often differ across jurisdictions and data domains. therefore, international cooperation is to be encouraged as far as possible. technologies enabling the processing of personal data are already available. in 2019, google made available its differential privacy library, which allows sensitive data to be processed privately. to reach these welfare - improving goals, further investment from both the public and the private sector are required. close cooperation between the private sector, which typically owns most of the new data, and the public sector, which uses ( or would like to use ) such data for policy reasons and for the common good, will also be essential. this is why central banks have always made great efforts when it comes to collecting and analysing data. throughout its history, banca d ’ italia has drawn extensively on data published by the national statistical institute and other national and international agencies. it has also been an active producer of statistics, not only on banking, financial and fiscal variables, but also on firms and households. banca d ’ italia has been collecting micro - level statistical information on companies since the early 1950s. these data are now enriched with non - traditional sources such as social media, blogs, newspapers, and private company datasets6. 5. conclusions let me conclude my talk by thanking, once again, all the speakers and participants for joining us today, even in this virtual fashion. we hope to welcome you here in rome in person in the near future. special thanks go to those who have helped to organize this workshop, which brings together leading economists, statisticians, artificial intelligence and machine - learning specialists, data scientists from about fifty - five central banks and fifteen participants from universities and government agencies. this guarantees a broad variety of perspectives and a lively discussion. i am sure that you are going to have a very interesting and productive workshop. such as the real estate website, immobiliare. it, and the mortgage website, mutuionline.