, in fact, willing to act. 6. conclusion ladies and gentleman, “ europe is like a bicycle. if it stops, it will fall over. ” this phrase was coined by former president of the european commission jacques delors, and it aptly describes the dynamics that we have seen so far in the storyline of the european union. since it was founded, the eu has steadily continued to develop, constantly taken over new tasks and policy areas and created new institutions. but the uk ’ s sudden decision to dismount has made the bicycle lose its balance. so now it is high time that we stop the european bicycle for a moment and take stock of where our journey is taking us. we might even have to change direction. aimlessly pedalling on cannot and will not be the solution. what will be decisive over the medium to long term is that we find good solutions to counter the near - chronic sense of dissatisfaction with europe ’ s institutions. any deficiencies we identify must be tackled in a decisive manner. europe needs to demonstrate its ability to embrace credible political reform. we germans, especially, need to be aware of our responsibility for making the european project a success, just as our partners in europe contributed to the success of german unity, which we are celebrating here today. and i firmly believe that european unity deserves to be celebrated and defended as proudly as germany ’ s. the unification of europe is a wonderful peace project – it was not for nothing that the eu was awarded the nobel peace prize in 2012 – and there could not be a more appropriate location for this celebration than munster, a city of peace. thank you for your attention. 5 / 5 bis central bankers'speeches

large companies but also for small and medium sized enterprises ( sme ), which have a significant share in the area of innovation. the increasing number of innovative companies operating in financial areas and the rapid pace of developments in this areas, are already reaching into areas of activity that until recently were the exclusive domain of the traditional financial entities, and are undermining their status. however, it should be remembered that innovation and technology are also an opening to many diverse challenges, and we should take care to mange risks in a controlled manner. in israel, we can find leadership of certain elements of innovation. for example, in fintech, israel is among the world leaders — today there are more than 500 fintech startups in israel, and they have grown rapidly in recent years and have generated a lot of interest among foreign investors. thus, in 2019, investments in israeli fintech companies reached $ 1. 8 billion, making up approximately 5 percent of total investment in fintech worldwide. israel leads research and development areas in high - tech, and in fintech in particular, and a large part of investment in the economy is dedicated to that. 1 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches the bank of israel also promotes innovation in its areas of activity, and we set it at the top of the strategic plan we formulated. leadership in innovation in our areas of activity is a central target from the bank ’ s perspective, we are continuing to integrate and enable innovation in banking and payment services, development of the capital market and credit market and their integration into the changing environment : as such, the bank of israel has been working a lot to update the existing payment system in israel. the switch to a world of advanced and modern payments is a necessity. payment systems that are convenient, efficient, secure, and stable are an important component of every advanced economy. the israeli economy lags compared with other economies in the world in terms of integration of advanced means of payment and the steps we are promoting will help to bridge over part of this gap. for example, implementing the emv standard — the first stage in companies switching to it was last week — is an initial step for the entry of advanced payment technologies and of other players, both domestic and global. the process will expand the range of possibilities available to businesses and consumers, such as executing smart transactions, contactless transactions, transactions via mobile phones, and it will accelerate the integration of electronic wallets and advanced payment applications. the bank of israel supports the development of