the accession countries to carefully prepare for the adoption of the acquis communautaire, which is indispensable for the successful enlargement of the european union. finally, i should like briefly to touch upon the status of preparations for the eurosystem ’ s information campaign on euro banknotes and coins. as i already mentioned during our previous dialogue, this campaign is designed to allow european citizens to familiarise themselves with the new banknotes and coins at an early stage. the campaign is also directed towards people in other countries, albeit to a lesser degree. its main focus will be on the visual appearance of the euro banknotes and coins, their security features, their denominations and the changeover modalities. special attention will be paid to the needs of vulnerable citizens. in the meantime, the preparatory work on the information campaign has progressed further and should, according to our current planning, be finalised in april. it goes without saying that the ecb would appreciate the opportunity to present the main features of the campaign to your committee in due course.

. these favourable conditions for a period of growth are clearly better now than at any time over the last ten years and this should both foster and facilitate structural reforms. 2. other activities of the eurosystem from among the other activities of the eurosystem over the last few months, i should like only briefly to report on a few specific issues, which might be of particular interest to you. at present, the ecb is preparing this year ’ s convergence report. as you will be aware, the treaty requires the ecb and the commission to present such a report at least every two years. the purpose of these reports is to examine the progress made by non - euro area member states in the fulfilment of their obligations with regard to the achievement of economic and monetary union. this year ’ s convergence report will cover greece and sweden. for denmark and the united kingdom, which have a special status, the convergence examination is only to be carried out at their explicit request. however, no such request has been made. according to our current planning, the convergence report is to be published on 3 may. in this context, i should also like to take the opportunity to confirm that, as envisaged, the ecb will present its annual report for 1999 on 12 april, to be discussed in your committee on 17 april 2000. eu enlargement is another area in which the ecb has assumed an increasingly active role. even though the ecb is not an official party to the accession negotiations, it goes without saying that the eurosystem ’ s views in its areas of competence should be properly taken into account. this applies, in particular, to the provisions needed to guarantee central bank independence, the liberalisation of capital movements, sound banking systems and overall financial stability. against this background, the ecb is closely monitoring the eu enlargement process, which has implications - already at this stage - for economic and monetary developments in accession countries. moreover, the ecb has, following the helsinki seminar of last november, further intensified its bilateral and multilateral contacts with central banks from accession countries. a network of seminars and fora has been set up, in which practical advice and information are provided at expert level with regard to the adjustments required for eu membership in emu - related areas of legislation, statistics and payment systems. moreover, the eurosystem provides technical assistance in all relevant areas of central banking. these activities are likely to be developed further and should make it easier for