implement an independent monetary policy. both similarities and differences are important in order to understand the role of our institutions in the assessment and availability of actions taken to safeguard financial stability. despite the arsenal of these actions, central banks cannot carry out this mission alone. central banks are in possession of a full arsenal of measures and instruments, but their implementation, albeit timely and complete, cannot have full effect unless they are coordinated and supported by other agents ’ actions. it is thus essential that all economically - important agents, public authorities, the public at large and the media are fully aware of this matter. apart from legal definitions, this awareness requires receiving comprehensive, regular and timely information on the events that may jeopardize financial stability and identifying the necessary protective actions. the regular release of reports dedicated to financial stability is the key instrument that meets this obligation. let me now share with you our experience at the bank of albania. according to our concept, the bank of albania has full legal responsibility for safeguarding financial stability. the bank of albania is attributed the exclusive role in terms of licensing and supervising the banking activity, the right to organize and monitor the operation of the payment systems, the lender - of - last - resort function to assist banks facing difficulties, the liquidity management function in the interbank market, and the determinant role in foreign exchange policy. the bank of albania has the obligation to inform the public about the events that may jeopardize the financial stability. in early 2007, the supervisory council of the bank of albania considered a better coverage of developments in the financial system – that is, not only in the banking sector ’ s alone – as highly important. in addition, it required strengthening the analysis of interaction between macroeconomic developments and the financial system ’ s activity. our ultimate goal was setting up a more sustainable mechanism that would allow the conversion of these analyses into proposals for concrete actions, in order to reduce systemic risk not only through the bank of albania ’ s actions but also through measures taken by other public authorities that have a role in monitoring the developments in the financial market. from the institutional viewpoint, in september that year, the supervisory council of the bank of albania, approved the establishment of the financial stability department, by selecting the most outstanding human capacities in the area of monetary operations, banking supervision, research and statistics. the conclusions derived from the analysis of this department would be regularly discussed at a higher central bank level, thus providing a useful filtering and enriching mechanism prior to

accept that there are always trade - offs, there are no free lunches, that for every plus there is a minus. we want everything at the same time, sometimes even mutually inconsistent things. but that is another matter. there is one area, however, where the czech population has been very conservative over a very long period of time, and that is the area of euro adoption. in the eurobarometer – a poll you all know – the czech republic remains the country where by far the largest share of the population has a negative view towards adopting the euro out of all the non - eurozone countries. roughly two thirds of czechs are against the euro. this is a higher figure than in sweden, which rejected the euro in a referendum in 2003. well, public opinion is not as anti - euro as in the uk, where at some point the euro was only “ slightly more popular than ebola ”, as i read in one british newspaper. but still, being for the euro is simply a total political non seller. if i were to summarise the arguments against joining, be it on the side of the general public or professionals, they would be roughly threefold : a. the first one is sentimental rather than economic. we have been living with our czech koruna, or crown, for quite some time and our country has a long history of monetary stability and stabilisation. by the way, we have had the same name for our currency ever since 1892, from the times of the austro - hungarian monarchy ( the crown is a monarchist name – what a paradox in our republic ) and there has never been any reason to rename it. the old adage says : if it ain ’ t broke, why fix it? if you have low and stable inflation on your own, you don ’ t need any credibility for your currency from abroad. b. the second argument is more economic. money matters. and monetary stabilisation matters. if you have shocks in the economy, something has to move to offset the shock. something has to be flexible. it is easier to accommodate shocks through flexible interest rates or a flexible exchange rate than through wages, unemployment or budget expenditure. we discussed yesterday how hard it can be if you don ’ t have monetary policy to adjust to shocks. this is a classical argument of monetary economics for the active role of elastic money when you don ’ t have flexible prices or wages. simple as that. and as we can see, the