action for achieving a series of concrete and measurable objectives. this means that upon conclusion of the project, having benefited from the technical assistance, the bank of albania will be able to discharge its institutional duties and responsibilities in the relevant fields more effectively and more efficiently. i believe the main factor of success for such technical cooperation programmes is closely related to having clear goals and objectives, set jointly with our european partners. twinning agreements are an important instrument for ensuring albania ’ s compliance with eu legislation. this agreement is reached in a convenient time, taking into account that only two bis central bankers ’ speeches months from now, a decision will be made by the council of the european union on the candidate status with regard to albania ’ s eu membership. the ultimate objective of this cooperation will go beyond the assistance ; it will contribute to achieving high levels of professionalism, independence and transparency. it will also contribute to promoting the monetary and financial stability in albania. moreover, the assistance will be an impetus to the country ’ s european integration, with special focus on compliance with criteria for legal and economic convergence with the european union. this underlines, once again, the role of european integration as a driver to economic and social modernisation in our countries. today ’ s agreement comes at a moment when the commitment of the european central bank to our region is focused not only on the field of technical cooperation, but also extends to the political one. in addition to the close monitoring of the economy of albania and other countries in our region, the european central bank plays an active role in the vienna initiative 2. 0, which aims at identifying and mitigating systemic risks in the countries where european banks operate. this initiative is experimenting a new coordinating mechanism between the european union and our region, bringing together representatives from parent banks, subsidiaries, home and host supervisory authorities, international financial institutions and the european commission. moreover, the european central bank is assuming a new supervisory role for 130 systemic banks in the euro area, some of which operate in albania or other countries of the region through their branches or subsidiaries. this role, which is expected to become functional in the field as of november this year, will be exercised in cooperation with national supervisory authorities and will have implications for albania and other countries of the region, given the presence of euro area - based banks in our banking sectors. with the establishment of the single supervisory mechanism, the european central bank will become the home supervisor for a number of banks operating in albania. in addition to improving the

banknote are the symbol of flag and national anthem - the main symbols of our national identity - accompanied with the portrait of the distinguished poet of the albanian national renaissance, at the same time, author the “ national anthem ”, aleksander stavre drenova - commonly known by the pen name “ asdreni ”. the presentation of a new series of banknotes means more than a simple change of its image. the bank of albania continuously improves the quality of the banknote in circulation, aiming to preserve its integrity. both new banknotes, like all the other denominations of the new series, contain advanced security features. they are produced with cutting - edge technologies for banknote printing and personalised by denomination. the 1000 lek banknote integrates the raised print in the portrait of pjeter bogdani, numerals, lettering, and in the short lines, which help the visually - impaired people to easily identify and recognise the banknote. the security thread turns into a dark solid line when holding the banknote against the light, and changes colour from green to purple at different angles ; the sun symbol with colour - changing image depending on the tilting angle ; and on the back, the iridescent stripe at the centre that displays the value 1000 leke. the 10000 lek banknote integrates the raised print in the portrait of asdreni, numerals, lettering and in other areas of the banknote, as well as the element which helps the visually - impaired people to easily identify and recognise the banknote. the watermark image ; the hologram accompanied by various optical effects ; the security thread which turns into a dark solid against the light and changes colour from green to purple depending on titling angel ; and on the back, the iridescent stripe at the centre that displays the value 10000 leke. a safe banknote means that we can use cash securely and easily for its identification as a genuine banknote. this is the foundation of a sound financial system : confidence in the core financial operations where currency has its implacable role as an intermediator. from 30 june 2021, the banknotes of the new series 1000 lek and 10000 lek will be legal tender in the republic of albania and will be used as means of payment, alongside the existing banknotes. seeing the beauty and quality of these banknotes, i can absolutely tell you that the work done for their realisation was too valuable. hence,