area countries have enjoyed economic growth comparable with that of the us. a few, in particular the larger ones, have not performed so well compared with the previous decade. germany and italy, for instance. portugal too. france has performed better since the introduction of the euro. i should add though that germany has caught up over the last three years. if economic growth differs across countries, with some doing particularly well and others not so well, where is the problem? is it the fault of the euro? is it the fault of emu? is it the fault of europe? some will answer yes, although for totally different reasons. on the one hand, you have those who think that insufficient growth is the result of insufficient economic policy coordination at european level. the solution, they would go on saying, is to create further european procedures, further initiatives to improve the economic governance of emu. on the other hand, you have those who believe that insufficient growth is due to the bureaucracy the opinions reflect only those of the author. alan greenspan, “ the age of turbulence ”, penguin 2007. of europe ’ s institutions, which leads to excessive regulation. the solution is, in this case, to give power back to the member states. both views – in my opinion – are wrong, but they add to the confusion surrounding europe, emu and the euro. ireland ’ s recent rejection of the lisbon treaty reflects the confusion that many citizens feel about europe. what is needed, first and foremost, is clarity on who does what and who is responsible for what in the european union. some things are pretty clear. for instance, who is in charge of the main instrument for achieving price stability in the euro area? it ’ s the ecb. and who is mainly responsible for enhancing economic growth? who has the main instruments to achieve this objective? by and large, it ’ s the member states which are responsible for most of the policies that affect economic growth, from education to product and labour market regulation, from taxation to research and technology, etc. if economic growth has been less satisfactory in some member states than in others, the main reason lies in one of these policies. this is what the lisbon process is all about : to facilitate comparisons between the economic performance of different countries, based on a few key indicators and objectives. the process should encourage the laggards to catch up with the better performers. what has happened instead? the lisbon agenda has been blamed for europe ’ s unsatis

has been offering efficient and safe market infrastructures that form the backbone of the financial sector. i am referring here in particular to the two target services : target2 - securities ( t2s ) in the field of securities settlement and target2 in the field of wholesale or large - value payments. the current economic and technological developments call for even more effective and efficient liquidity management services. in order to meet this demand, the eurosystem will extend and enhance its provision of market infrastructure services for high - value payments. it will do so by integrating target2 with target2 - securities and tips. this consolidation will also allow target2 to benefit from the state - of - the - art approaches and technologies offered by t2s. this will be achieved through technical integration in the domains of connectivity, data management and other key enabling components, such as billing. there are further advantages : we not only expect a decrease in the running costs of the target services. it will also act as a catalyst for smoother and stronger operability. and the harmonisation of functionalities across all target services should lead to major improvements in their usability for participants and service operators alike. the t2 - t2s consolidation project is scheduled to go live in november 2021. conclusion let me conclude. technological innovation and evolving user needs are reshaping the market infrastructure and payments landscape on a global scale. cooperation between european market players is essential to reap the opportunities and address the challenges deriving from such change. cooperation is also key to the continuous provision of efficient and safe payments services in europe. and cooperation is indispensable for europe to remain competitive in the global payments market. the ecb strongly supports such cooperative spirit, as shown by the work of the erpb. with instant payments, european stakeholders have developed a competitive and new payment instrument. why not take advantage of this potential? current achievements, such as sct inst and tips, should facilitate future work towards increasing the efficiency of the european payments market. pan - european solutions based on instant payments would be a chance for europe to strengthen its role in payment innovation to the benefit of all eu citizens and businesses. let us work together on this future - oriented approach and help europe going forward. 4 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches