europe's unity and resilience. i count on this parliament – and the next one – to drive the decisive european action needed to strengthen the euro area. 4 / 5 bis - central bankers'speeches the ecb will continue to play its part, within its mandate. let me reiterate our unwavering commitment to delivering on price stability, while contributing to the topics i have talked about today and maintaining an ongoing dialogue with you, the elected representatives of eu citizens. thank you for your attention. i now look forward to listening to your views during today's debate. 1 european commission ( 2023 ), 2023 strategic foresight report – sustainability and people's wellbeing at the heart of europe's open strategic autonomy. 2 wright, w. and hamre, e. f. ( 2021 ), " report : the problem with european stock markets ", the future of eu capital markets, new financial, march. 3 international relations committee work stream on open strategic autonomy ( 2023 ), " the eu's open strategic autonomy from a central banking perspective – challenges to the monetary policy landscape from a changing geopolitical environment ", occasional paper series, no 311, ecb, march. 4 european commission ( 2023 ), long - term competitiveness in the eu : looking beyond 2030. 5 european investment bank ( 2022 ), eib investment survey – eu overview. 6 lehtimaki, j. and sondermann, d. ( 2020 ), " baldwin vs cecchini revisited : the growth impact of the european single market ", working paper series, no 2392, ecb, april. 5 / 5 bis - central bankers'speeches

' speeches core inflation – excluding energy and food price developments – also decreased further to 3. 3 %, reflecting lower inflation in goods, while services inflation remained more persistent. wage pressures, meanwhile, remain strong. wage growth is expected to become an increasingly important driver of inflation dynamics in the coming quarters, reflecting employee demand for inflation compensation and tight labour markets. at the same time, the contribution of profits – which has recently accounted for much of the increase in domestic cost pressures – is declining, suggesting that, as expected, labour cost increases are partly buffered by profits and are not being fully passed on to consumers. regarding your concerns about the risks of second - round effects, as mentioned in your draft resolution, let me emphasise that our restrictive monetary policy stance, the ensuing strong decline in headline inflation and firmly anchored longer - term inflation expectations act as a safeguard against a sustained wage - price spiral. looking forward, we expect inflation to continue slowing down, as the impact of past upward shocks fades and tight financing conditions help to push down inflation. this brings me to our current monetary policy stance. at our january governing council meeting, we considered that the incoming information was broadly in line with our december assessment of the medium - term inflation outlook. we therefore decided to keep our key policy interest rates unchanged. these interest rates are at levels that, maintained for a sufficiently long duration, will make a substantial contribution to ensuring that inflation returns to our two per cent medium - term target in a timely manner. the current disinflationary process is expected to continue, but the governing council needs to be confident that it will lead us sustainably to our 2 % target. we will continue to follow a data - dependent approach to determining the appropriate level and duration of restriction, taking into account the inflation outlook, the dynamics of underlying inflation and the strength of monetary policy transmission. building euro area resilience in turbulent times the shifting economic and geopolitical landscape calls for strengthening the euro area's resilience. as you note in your draft resolution, high energy prices and increased geopolitical instability are posing a threat to euro area competitiveness. and they are adding to europe's existing structural challenges such as ageing, climate change and digitalisation. to maintain monetary sovereignty and economic prosperity in these challenging times, it is essential for europe to build up resilience to shocks and invest in its strategic autonomy. 2 / 5 bis - central bankers'speeches a unified european policy response should strive to