completed. at the same time, integration in retail markets is not yet sufficiently advanced. as regards the post - fsap strategy, although the ecb is still in the process of formulating its views on the matter, we have already identified at least three important elements. first, the focus should be on the effective and consistent implementation of the fsap at the national level. new legislative initiatives at the community level should be kept to a minimum and only introduced if strictly necessary. in this respect, the implementation of the lamfalussy framework represents a unique opportunity to achieve a consistent regulatory and supervisory framework for financial services. indeed, the experience so far gained with the implementation of the framework in the securities field is broadly positive. it should be recognised, however, that there is still scope for improvement, for instance with regard to striking the right balance between the two levels of community legislation ( core principles and technical details ). second, the policies relating to the regulatory and supervisory framework should be complemented by and closely coordinated with other relevant policies for financial services, for instance competition policy. third, incentives should be provided for the private sector to play its role in exploiting the opportunities offered by public action. where appropriate, mechanisms should be provided to facilitate coordinated approaches among market participants. moreover, the eurosystem has requested that a single euro payments area ( sepa ) be created for the euro area from 1 january 2008, meaning that citizens and enterprises could make payments throughout the euro area from a single bank account, using a single set of payment instruments, as easily and safely as in the national context today. in addition, national infrastructures should migrate to a pan - european payments infrastructure by the end of 2010. we appreciate the commission ’ s support for the sepa project. the ecb is also in a regular dialogue with the banking industry to seek market participants ’ support for these objectives. i am now ready to answer your questions.

yves mersch : competitiveness of europe and european financial markets panel contribution by mr yves mersch, member of the executive board of the european central bank, at the 30th edition of the workshop " the outlook for the economy and finance ", villa d'este, cernobbio, 6 april 2019. * * * to increase competitiveness is the main driver for higher potential growth. member states have to pursue politics and establish institutions that stimulate the dynamics of a competitive private sector. in most euro area countries potential growth has remained too low, however. labour market rigidities and inefficient business environment conditions seem to be major impediments. in particular, labour supply is held back by policies which do not sufficiently motivate to take up jobs and do not tackle skill mismatch or labour shortages. moreover, investment could be strengthened through fostering competition, improve the business environment and reduce uncertainty e. g. through improving the quality and efficiency of public institutions more generally. despite favourable economic and financing conditions, structural reform progress has been rather limited, including in several of the weakest countries. the trend of insufficient structural reform implementation observed in particular since 2014 has continued during the last year. only a few countries have engaged in more far - reaching structural reforms, most notably greece and france. some countries even reversed recent reforms that had been designed to improve the smooth functioning of the economy, most notably in the areas of labour markets and pension systems. overall, reform efforts were not in line with reform needs. these policy areas concern national competencies, but in a single markets cross - border spillover effects are generated. governments therefore need to act at national levels, enhanced through procedures, rules and harmonization at eu level. against the background of limited reform effort and in spite of the robust cyclical upswing, overall risks and vulnerabilities in many cases have only moderately declined since last year. the commission ’ s annual assessment of country specific recommended reforms finds only limited progress. 1 the progress made is evaluated using five categories : “ no progress ”, “ limited progress ”, “ some progress ”, “ substantial progress ” and “ full implementation ”. “ no progress ” means that the member state concerned did not even “ credibly announce ” measures that would aim to address the policy recommendation. out of 73 country specific recommendations ( csrs ), none saw full implementation, and substantial progress was made in only two cases. for the overwhelming majority of csrs ( more