their nominal anchor currency. the euro also serves as a catalyst for economic reform. among other things, the adoption of a single currency means that member states participating in the euro area no longer have their own national currencies which they can devalue to protect inefficient industries in times of need. instead, other ways must be found to maintain competitiveness, both within the euro area and internationally. i believe it is no coincidence that policy - makers across europe are now focusing more than ever on how to overcome the economic rigidities which, in recent years, tended to hold europe back in terms of economic growth. ladies and gentlemen! but above all, the prime objective of the independent eurosystem is to guarantee price stability in the euro area. and this is what the eurosystem, now also including the bank of greece after greece has joined emu, has done. monetary policy decisions have been appropriate to the prevailing economic situation. the decisions of the governing council of the european central bank ( ecb ) have guaranteed internal price stability. with an average hicp increase of just 1. 1 % in 1999 and 2. 3 % from january to november 2000, the euro area has one of the lowest levels of inflation worldwide. during the last year, the emergence of external upward price pressures and the upswing of the euro area economy have generated some risks to price stability. in a preemptive manner, the governing council of the ecb has tightened monetary policy, thus helping to maintain the favorable conditions for sustained, non - inflationary growth with a positive impact on employment. over the medium term, there are still elements of upward risks to price stability which warrant close monitoring. financial markets have developed confidence in the eurosystem policies, as can be seen from the fact that long - term interest rates in the euro area have remained persistently at, or below, us levels. therefore, the independent eurosystem will stick, in a credible manner, both to its prime objective of safeguarding price stability and to its successful single monetary policy according to the specific needs of the euro area. this was clearly the case, when the governing council of the ecb did not take any action after the fed ’ s surprising interest rate cut by 50 basis points on january 3th, obviously expressing some concerns with a “ soft landing ” in the us. summing up, a lot of progress has already been made. in addition to low inflation, economic growth in the euro area has

robert holzmann governor oesterreichische nationalbank welcome remarks vienna, november 25, 2019 check against delivery! looking back on 30 years of transition – and looking 30 years ahead opening remarks conference on european economic integration ( ceei ) 2019 ladies and gentlemen, welcome to this year ’ s conference on european economic integration, the first in this oenb conference series that i have the honor to open in my capacity as the governor of the central bank of austria. let me particularly welcome • professor beata javorcik, chief economist of the european bank for reconstruction and development ( ebrd ) and • my central bank colleagues • vice - governor ana ivkovic, from serbia ; • governor jiri rusnok and deputy governor marek mora, my former student, from the czech republic ; • governor gent sejko, from albania ; • governor bostjan vasle and deputy governor primoz dolenc, from slovenia ; • governor boris vujcic, from croatia. this year ’ s conference on european economic integration ( ceei ) marks a very special occasion. exactly 30 years ago to this day, communist leaders in what was then czechoslovakia bowed to the pressure of hundreds of thousands of protesters in the streets led by former political prisoner and the country ’ s later president vaclav havel. yet, it was not just frustrated citizens during the velvet revolution in czechoslovakia who rose against political suppression and central planning, which had produced shoddy economic outcomes, but people throughout the entire former eastern bloc. as a result, the remarkable events of 1989 helped bring down the single most concrete – in every sense of the word – symbol of the 40 - year division of the european continent : the berlin wall. publisher and editor : oesterreichische nationalbank communications division editor in chief : christian gutlederer otto - wagner - platz 3, 1010 vienna, po box 61 in 1989, i was in warsaw, working with the international monetary fund ( imf ). i remember very well spending weeks on end in a room filled with cigar smoke in a lush but shabby hotel, calculating spreadsheets on the fiscal situation of poland together with a junior argentine colleague ( and later division head at the imf ’ s fiscal affairs department ). as a european, i had the advantage of having had better training on public finances than many of my american colleagues. nevertheless, this was not an easy task, given the lack of available data. but we managed