has increased from the 11 founding members to the current 19 members ; ii. despite all these challenges, we have managed to overcome the existential threat hovering over the euro area in the wake of the global financial crisis, particularly from 2010 onwards ; iii. we managed to enhance the coordination of the member states ’ economic and fiscal policies ; iv. we managed to establish the banking union, although it is still incomplete ; v. we are working towards a capital market union ; vi. data for the june 2019 eurobarometer indicate that 76 % of euro area citizens support the single currency, which, as jean - claude trichet, former president of the ecb, has told us, has not been sufficiently highlighted. as such, we now undeniably have a more consistent overall operating framework for the emu. 1 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches however, as several speakers at this conference have already noted, the progress we have made so far, although impressive, is still not enough. approximately 20 years ago, i wrote that “ the debut of the euro went very well, but a happy ending is yet to be secured ”. 1 in my opinion, this statement remains valid. in fact, a great deal of progress in the emu is still needed to achieve adequate robustness, particularly against a backdrop of serious economic crisis. most notably, it is key that we complete the banking union, given that a common deposit guarantee scheme will bring it some much needed coherence, which is a prerequisite for benefiting fully from its advantages. this, however, is still not enough on its own. in my view, is even more important to equip the european union with a budgetary tool enabling it to deal with asymmetric shocks that uses the automatic stabiliser approach. as pointed out earlier here today, it is also necessary to better reconcile centralised monetary policy with the member states ’ fiscal policies. the emu is not an end in itself, but rather one of the means used by the european union to achieve, pursuant to article 3 ( 3 ) of the treaty on european union, the “ sustainable development of europe based on balanced economic growth and price stability, a highly competitive social market economy, aiming at full employment and social progress, and a high level of protection and improvement of the quality of the environment ”. deepening the emu is no longer an option : it is an imperative. future generations will not think well of us if, after launching such

is ] hard ”. successfully deepening the emu is not quite as hard as going to the moon, but it undoubtedly takes courage and clearmindedness to take difficult and necessary decisions. 3. 2019 has seen many significant anniversaries : this includes, for instance, the 100th anniversary of the international labour organization, the 75th anniversary of the bretton woods conference, the 25th anniversary of the end of the uruguay round negotiations, which led to the creation of the world trade organization and, of course, the 20th anniversary of the euro, the theme of today. these are all very different events, but with one common feature : the idea that cooperation and international economic integration are positive tools to further the well - being of the population, and the firm belief that an international order where law prevails over brute force is invaluable to peaceful coexistence. by marking the 20th anniversary of the euro with this conference, banco de portugal, an active player in the emu creation process from its very beginning, wanted to use a key date for us collectively to encourage a no - taboos debate, to assess how far we have come and the challenges which lie ahead. the first panel focused on the difficult, crucial issue of interconnecting a centralised monetary policy with merely harmonised fiscal policies. the second panel revisited the core principles established in the treaties and how they were implemented. the third panel highlighted the geopolitical consequences of the euro, which is in line with one of key goals behind its creation to “ build a european monetary identity ”, most notably by lessening dependence on the us dollar. the consequences of the creation of the euro extend well beyond the european union ’ s borders. whichever perspective one takes, this is a major event of world history, first and foremost due to its repercussions in international monetary and economic relations as well as in geopolitical terms and, for this very reason, we have decided to assess the past 20 years also from that standpoint. as this event is now coming to a close, i think it is fair to say that we have fully achieved the purposes of this conference. we would like to thank our distinguished speakers, who have taken some time out of their busy schedules to accept our invitation and come here today. we would also like to thank all of you who have participated in the conference. lastly, of course, i would like to thank all of banco de portugal ’ s staff that made it into