we have with the banks. i would therefore also like to thank the representatives of the supervised institutions for the mutual trust we have built up together. i am thinking in particular of the risk directorates. in the vast majority of cases, we work in a calm and constructive manner, in the common interest of a more resilient european banking sector. this is an important asset. given the difficult challenges that lie ahead in the very near future, in europe and around the world, we will need more than ever to rely on these relationships of trust. it's now time for me to conclude. i would like to thank you for your attention, both on site and remotely, and to thank the various speakers for the quality of the debates and presentations. let us continue to work together to ensure that the ssm remains the world - class supervisor that we have built : an asset for a resilient and competitive 2 / 3 bis - central bankers'speeches european banking sector, a token of confidence for european citizens and, last but not least, a support for our common currency and european integration as a whole. thank you all very much. 3 / 3 bis - central bankers'speeches

rules should at least protect public investment. the third point on my european to - do list is to improve coordination in other areas of economic policy. to effectively tackle the divergent competitiveness in the euro area, all member states must play their part. less productive economies need to implement reforms and investments that increase their productivity and competitiveness. this has obvious benefits for exports, economic growth and employment. and it decreases the productivity gap with more productive economies. these reforms are, however, more likely to succeed if the stronger economies also do their fair share. large and persistent trade surpluses often hide underlying problems, such as corporate savings retained for tax reasons, or stagnant wage growth. reforms aimed at increasing households ’ purchasing power would therefore not only increase welfare in the more competitive member states, but also make life easier for the more vulnerable ones. but let ’ s be realistic : such reforms will take time. even with the right policies in place, it will still take decades for many member states to get to where they need to be. in the coming years, countries with high levels of public debt will unlikely be able to weather another serious downturn without implementing far - reaching budget cuts and tax hikes. these countries then risk falling even further behind. which would again overshadow our objective of creating a stronger and more coherent monetary union. the best way to deal with this, is something we will have to continue reflecting on. 4 i certainly do not have all the answers. but i do believe that the agenda i have outlined would put us on the way to a stronger currency union. with european governments investing in sustainable growth, both jointly and individually. through more closely aligned economic policy. more european integration is not a popular message nowadays, i realize that. we could also choose to abstain from further european integration. that ’ s also an option, certainly. but there is a price to pay for that option. the price involves continued economic divergence between euro area member states, more debt crises, more emergency support and lower levels of prosperity. would the euro survive such a scenario? all the same, we are living in a different economic and monetary union than we imagined back in the 1990s. with more sharing of risk. and more harmonization of policy. in recent years we have pushed the boundaries of the treaty. there is no guarantee we will not have to do that again. so it is equally crucial to reaffirm the political mandate. it is up to politicians to state their