eu - wide central fiscal capacity of a meaningful size can help ensure resources flow to where they have the highest benefits, and not where governments are more able and willing to provide state aid. ” national governments must avoid creating competitive advantages over other eu countries. we should rather channel our forces towards a truly european industrial policy, supported among others by public - private partnerships, and increase investments in cross - border infrastructure. to achieve this, european competition policy needs to be more strategically oriented. we should in particular aim for a digital single market combining regulation, financing and talent development. b ) a financing union page 8 sur 10 conventional wisdom states that the three transformations mentioned previously are desirable but impossible to finance. i would like to refute this idea. the climate transition will be by far the most capital intensive. the amounts involved may look daunting, especially when presented in absolute terms : possibly around 620 billion euros per year of additional investments in the eu through 2030, according to the european commission ’ s latest estimates. xiii this represents up to 3. 9 % of eu gdp, which the public sector can only partially finance due to the high level of public debt. in this regard europe needs a common stability framework to recover some leeway, with new fiscal rules hoped for in the very next days : let me stress that we need rules, remaining at once pragmatic and not too complex. the climate transition can be financed, subject to a key prerequisite : that the private sector shoulders the bulk of the financial effort, and that we unlock crossborder capital flows for the transition. this is the strongest argument in favour of a green capital markets union ( cmu ), which i also advocated as early as 2019 with jens weidmann xiv, and more recently with joachim nagel xv. but why don ’ t we make more progress? i fully concur with ecb president christine lagarde that europe should make a “ kantian shift ” in our approach to cmu xvi. as she strongly stressed, immanuel kant boldly stated that, instead of the world creating our perception, it is our perception – and our will – that defines how we experience the world. translated to cmu : let us go beyond the rather technical and bottom - up details of the current action plan, and dare a great political ambition “ from the top ”. a higher purpose – financing the green and digital transitions – would facilitate much greater ownership and favour faster implementation. the digital transformation will

medium term. developments within m3 clearly reflect market participants'specific investment responses to the intensification of the financial turmoil, but increasingly also the impact of the past reduction in the key ecb interest rates. as this reduction has narrowed the gaps between the interest rates paid on the different categories of short - term deposits, it has fostered shifts in the allocation of funds. for example, the demand for overnight deposits further strengthened in february and contributed to the rise in the annual growth rate of m1 to 6. 3 %, while the demand for short - term time deposits weakened considerably. the flow of mfi loans to non - financial corporations and households has remained very subdued. the slightly negative flow of lending to non - financial corporations in february reflects a decline in the outstanding amount of loans with a shorter maturity, while the net flow in loans with longer maturities remained positive. the decline in short - term lending may be indicative of a reduction in loan demand related to the weakening of economic activity. however, supply effects have probably also affected loan developments. in this respect, developments over the past few months may in part reflect ongoing efforts of banks as well as the corporate and household sector to reduce the highly leveraged positions built up in past years. to sum up, today's decision takes into account the expectation that price pressures will remain subdued, reflecting the substantial past fall in commodity prices and the marked weakening of economic activity in the euro area and globally. the latest economic data and survey information confirm that the world economy, including the euro area, is undergoing a severe downturn. both global and euro area demand are likely to remain very weak over 2009, before gradually recovering in the course of 2010. available indicators of inflation expectations over the medium to longer term remain firmly anchored in line with the governing council's aim of keeping inflation rates at levels below, but close to, 2 % over the medium term. a cross - check with the outcome of the monetary analysis confirms that inflationary pressure has been diminishing. after today's decision we expect price stability to be maintained over the medium term, thereby supporting the purchasing power of euro area households. the governing council will continue to ensure a firm anchoring of medium - term inflation expectations. such anchoring is indispensable to supporting sustainable growth and employment and contributes to financial stability. accordingly, we will continue to monitor very closely all developments over the period ahead. regarding fiscal policies, it is necessary that countries'commitments to a path of consolidation