klaus liebscher : conference on european economic integration ( ceei ) opening remarks by dr klaus liebscher, governor of the austrian national bank, at the conference on european economic integration ( ceei ), vienna, 29 november 2004. * * * ladies and gentlemen, it is a great pleasure for me to welcome you all to vienna and to our conference on european economic integration ( ceei ). i am very happy to welcome, in particular, the president of the european central bank, monsieur jean - claude trichet, who is going to take the floor in a few minutes to deliver the keynote speech, and the president of the deutsche bundesbank, prof. weber, who will hold this evening ’ s dinner speech. jean - claude, axel - a very warm welcome to both of you! i also would like to welcome all fellow governors who followed our invitation - let me thank you for your highly valuable contributions to this conference. it is also a privilege for me that the special coordinator of the stability pact for south eastern europe, mr. erhard busek, will give an introductory statement later this morning. we are also very glad that we have again attracted many distinguished speakers and renowned experts from academia, from national as well as international institutions, and from the banking sector. ladies and gentlemen, about one year ago, i was welcoming you here to our last “ east - west conference ”. we had come together to debate “ the economic potential of a larger europe - keys to success ” and thus revisited the most important topics of previous east - west conferences, such as human capital formation, financial stability, and the specification of a suitable policy mix or structural reforms. i am very proud to be able to say that the oesterreichische nationalbank has been following the transition process very closely from the very beginnings. already in 1989, the oesterreichische nationalbank started to build up an international platform comprising seminars, workshops and conferences - to discuss questions that are related to the transition process and to the european integration. by 1995, the east - west conference was established as an annual event of the oenb in vienna that highlighted numerous aspects of mutual interest year after year. in the setting of the 2003 east - west conference, finally, we pre - celebrated the historic event of the eu ’ s enlargement towards the east - truly a major milestone in the european integration process. and just one month ago the process of european integration was taken one step further yet again

and growth pact ( sgp ), which provides a clear, transparent and simple framework. today ’ s discussion about making the sgp rules more flexible as a short - term remedy to the fiscal problems occurring in some member states is counterproductive and at odds with the maastrichtconsensus. in my mind, the sgp works as it is. the problem has been in its implementation. it is not the pact itself which has disadvantages or which has failed. it is the missing will of several governments to fulfil their responsibilities and obligations - they failed. thus, should the rules be made exceedingly complex and contingent on too many exceptional economic circumstances, this will clearly weak the sgp in its implementation and credibility. therefore, i would like to stress that a return onto a path of long - term sustainable public finances is necessary in order to foster the public trust in this pillar of the emu stability architecture and to cushion possible effects of the lisbon structural reform agenda as well as to moderate the challenges of ageing societies in europe. where and how does central and eastern europe enter this picture? the deepening of the european union came along with the widening of the european union. since the fall of the iron curtain 15 years ago, the central and eastern european countries have made impressive and successful, and often painful, experiences of transition to market economies ; efforts there have been crowned by their accession to the eu. membership includes the commitment to the eventual adoption of the euro. the creation of the euro area was based on the sustainable fulfilment of the maastrichtconvergence criteria, and they will be applied to future euro area entrants in the same way. these criteria form a coherent package based on a set of economic indicators that is neither negotiable nor subject to change. from a legal perspective, this ensures continuity and equal treatment, from an economic perspective, the logic of lasting convergence has not changed and is all the more important when countries are at different stages of economic development. as was pointed out in the last convergence report of the ecb, new member states still have some way to go and nominal and real convergence with the euro area differs considerably in some of the new member states. therefore, reform efforts and implementation of sound policies, especially in the fiscal field, are still required on the way to monetary union. in this light, a weakening of the stability and growth pact would certainly send a wrong signal to any new eu country.