cooperating authorities. toward the goal of consistent global enforcement, the principles are considered to be minimum requirements. in contrast, the three old sets of guidance were weaker, being recommendations rather than requirements. as recommendations, they could be ignored. in contrast, as the principles make clear, countries that are members of cpss and iosco are bis central bankers ’ speeches to apply the principles to “ the fullest extent possible. ” this means that regulation and legal frameworks are to be adjusted as needed in order to accommodate the standards. to ensure that this happens, cpss and iosco are also developing disclosure and assessment regimes. the purpose is to facilitate a consistent set of disclosures by the different fmis and a consistent set of assessment methodologies that can be used by the relevant international institutions, namely the international money fund and the world bank, and by the relevant national authorities of the fmis domiciled in their jurisdictions. when the principles are published next month, cpss and iosco will also issue a disclosure regime proposal and an assessment regime proposal. these will be put forward for a 60 - day consultation period to give the market participants, fmis, and regulators an opportunity to comment. also, once the principles are rolled out and countries start to implement the legal and regulatory changes necessary to put the principles into practice, it is anticipated that cpss and iosco will undertake a monitoring effort to see how it is going. the focus will be on evaluating how quickly and broadly the principles are being embedded in national legal and regulatory frameworks. the principles are important in supporting the g20 strategy of mandatory clearing of standardized otc derivatives trades and in ensuring that the four safeguards discussed earlier for global ccps and other fmis are implemented. as i mentioned earlier, the new principles lay out the responsibilities of authorities for cooperative oversight. cooperation can take a variety of forms, including formal arrangements that are organized under memoranda of understandings, specific protocols or other documentation for the exchange of critical information, and informal arrangements for regular and ad hoc communications. much work is currently underway to establish various forms of effective cooperation, particularly for individual ccps and trade repositories that are becoming globally important. however, as the work toward meeting the g - 20 commitments continues, much more work is needed to design and implement such arrangements for the relevant fmis. in terms of the issue of access, explicit requirements for fmis are embedded in the principles. the principles establish a framework that covers access

the latter. in turn, this could help to explain some domestic imbalances observed in the chinese economy. it is positive that, thanks to measures concerning land acquisition, banking loan requirements and interest rate adjustments, the housing market has started to cool down and price increases began to decelerate in many regions last year. higher returns on financial assets could help further relieve some of the pressure on the real estate market, by enticing economic agents to invest more in financial assets rather than in real assets. seen also from that angle, reforms are not only useful to help china address external imbalances, but also domestic ones. v. conclusion it is time for me to conclude. an important event in our common history took place seven centuries ago, when marco po - lo came from europe to china for the first time. but europe and china do not only have a common history, we have a future to share. we are key partners. our trade and financial relations are strengthening to our mutual benefit. policy challenges lie ahead for both of us, and the orderly adjustment of current account imbalances globally is an important one. i am convinced that the euro area and china will pursue the appropriate policies to address effectively the challenges we face and, in this way, make this common future bright. as a european, i feel that i cannot finish my presentation without a few words on perhaps one of the most complex challenges ahead for my continent : its future constitutional set - up. this is an issue about which we are often asked by our asian friends. european integration is a unique endeavour. bringing together sovereign nations with a long and rich history is a long - term process, which requires a sense of purpose and determination. early on, europeans placed emphasis on achieving economic integration. the single european market and the euro are two major achievements. more recently, the focus shifted towards further developing the union ’ s institutional framework and political dimension. a constitution was drafted to lay down the appropriate institutions and political processes which would allow the enlarged european union to act efficiently and transparently and assume an international role that is commensurate with its economic and political weight. fourteen countries, representing around half of the european union ’ s population, have ratified this constitution or are very close to formal completion. in france and the netherlands, however, where the draft constitution was put to a referendum, it did not find majority support. in june 2005, the european heads of state or government discussed the reasons and implications. they concluded that