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

– putting the existence of the two - tier banking system at risk. in this situation, the efficient flow of credit to the economy would likely be impaired. the central bank – now holders of deposit funding – would have to decide which projects were financed, either directly by replacing commercial banks, or indirectly by deciding which banks received funding. this is an undesirable situation for european central bankers for two reasons : 1. legally, the treaty provides for the ecb to operate in an open market economy. 2. and, by the same logic, we are well aware of friedrich von hayek ’ s warnings about “ the pretence of knowledge ”. 14 decentralised market decisions are the “ first choice ” when it comes to allocating resources in an optimal way. this includes the allocation of credit. overall, there is currently no convincing motivation for the eurosystem to issue dbm to the general public. it is unnecessary at present and, when the likely negative impacts on the financial system are taken into account, such a move appears disproportionate to the aims put forward by 7 / 9 bis central bankers'speeches its proponents. there is no need to fix something that is not broken. if anything, one could imagine a digital representation of cash that replicates the features of cash in the reasonably distant future, if citizens demanded it. such an approach seems more appropriate for jurisdictions whose currencies face domestic regress as they are also not widely accepted beyond their territory – which is certainly not the case for the euro. conclusion let me conclude. virtual currencies are not money, nor will they be for the foreseeable future. their market share is still small and their ties to the real economy are still limited. but this can be subject to change. regulators and legislators on all levels should therefore urgently pay close attention to mitigating the potential risks that could stem from growing vc business. it is not unknown for new innovations to bring about euphoria and hype, which in turn fuel bubbles that eventually burst. and indeed, the hot air is already escaping from some of these bubbles. but just because the initial euphoria and hype subsequently fade, it does not mean that the innovation is without virtue, even if early market leaders may not last the distance. despite the many defaulted railroad bonds, railways are a common mode of transport today. from london you can even take a train directly to many parts of europe through the channel tunnel – whose