responsibility for the outcome to the commission. yet at the same time the commission has limited powers in this domain. with effective european institutions, however, it is possible to make a more direct link between decisions and responsibility. precisely because those institutions are invested with defined powers, citizens can hold them accountable against their mandate. and in fact, strengthening these channels of democratic participation is vital for the euro area today. it is exactly the impression that there is too little accountability in europe that populist parties often exploit. in sum, my conclusion is that there must be a quantum leap in institutional convergence. we need to move from a system of rules and guidelines for national economic policy making, to a system of further sovereignty sharing within common institutions. and as part of this process we need to strengthen the democratic accountability of europe towards its citizens, which would automatically deepen our political union. let me however be clear : in the absence of institutions, rules act as a crucial anchor for confidence. so there is no question that the rules can be ignored because institutions would be better. on the contrary, they have to be fully respected so that we can make such a transition in the future. we have to build trust today by showing that what we agree to, we honour. and then we take the next steps forward as credible partners for each other. conclusion let me conclude. bis central bankers ’ speeches the euro area has advanced a long way as a monetary union. we began with a single market, a single currency and a single monetary policy. we now have a single supervisor and resolution authority. and soon we will have a single capital market. but we have not yet advanced far enough to put all questions about our future to bed. we need to remove those lingering doubts that resurface whenever a shock hits. and to do so we have to accelerate both our economic and institutional convergence. our monetary policy is helping to make this possible by creating an improving cyclical environment. but it is now up to governments to seize on this opportunity and make those improvements permanent. thank you for your attention. bis central bankers ’ speeches

whether the so - called " decoupling, " whereby emerging economies will continue their high growth despite the slowdown in advanced economies, or " coupling, " where emerging economies will be influenced by the slowdown in advanced economies, applies to the current state of the world economy. recent developments indicate that asian economies are decelerating due to the deterioration in the u. s. and european economies, as i mentioned earlier, and so any " decoupling " or " coupling " is clearly not perfect. in asia, various countries and regions, one after another, have accomplished economic take - off starting with the nies, followed by the asean economies and china, and then by india. and asia taken as a whole has attained high growth through countries and areas at different stages of development influencing on each other. developments in asian economies have a strong bearing on the future of the economy in the kyushu region together with developments in japan's economy and in the world economy as a whole. in discussing the future of asian economies, although it may well depend on how long the economic weakening in the united states and europe continues, the bank will pay close attention to whether strong intraregional demand in asia can be maintained through making the most of economic dynamism in asian economies with the assistance of economic policy actions in countries such as china. as i mentioned in the beginning, the bank collects information on the regional economies through research conducted at its branches. as i have already said, i worked in the oita branch of the bank for a year and a half during the early 1990s, and one of the advantages that i enjoyed as general manager was being able to hear candid views from the management of various firms in the region regardless of firm size. i had an experience of visiting a small convenience store at the time and hearing views on the business of convenience stores from a couple managing the store in their family room upstairs. the name, the bank of japan, may give you the impression that we are making policy judgments only from macroeconomic data or information collected in the metropolis, but this is not so. since the interest rate policy affects areas throughout the country, we make efforts to collect a wide array of information to make our judgment. to this end, i would like to ask for your continued support. i am looking forward to hearing your views on the current situation of and issues facing the kyushu economy as well as your requests to the bank. thank you very much for your kind attention.