may affect the balance of power within the current institutional set - up. the second reason is that the treaty does not currently allow the ecb to be allocated supervisory tasks related to insurance companies or financial conglomerates. i am not in a position to judge whether extending the ecb ’ s responsibilities would affect the balance of power or not, and whether this would be a positive development. it seems to me to be more of a pretext than a real argument. in any case, whatever task the ecb is entrusted with, it should remain independent, as the treaty stipulates, but also accountable. it seems to me that over the years the ecb has developed an accountability dialogue with the european parliament ( as well as other eu bodies ) which has been to the satisfaction of both parties, indeed all parties involved. finally, the argument based on the fact that article 105 ( 6 ) of the treaty does not allow the ecb to be assigned supervisory tasks on insurance companies does not stand to a closer scrutiny. first, it could be argued that such provision would not prohibit the attribution of responsibilities to the ecb as regards the supervision of financial conglomerates, as the see for instance : group of thirty, the structure of financial supervision – approaches and challenges in a global marketplace, october 2008 ; e. wymeersch, the structure of financial supervision in europe - about single, twin peaks and multiple financial supervisors, 2006, available on www. ssrn. com ; d. masciandaro ( ed. ), handbook of central banking and financial authorities in europe, 2005. “ open issues in european central banking ”, macmillan, 2000. related supervisory regime ( as introduced by the financial conglomerates directive 5 ) is only supplementary with regard to the conglomerate as a whole, and does not regard the direct supervision of insurance undertakings. second, this is not an argument that could support the case for the attribution of supervisory responsibilities to a new european entity and not to the ecb : also in the former case the treaty would need to be amended. a stronger role for the ecb? strengthening the role of the ecb in the field of supervision has some important advantages which, in my view, outweigh the disadvantages. first, there is no need to follow the normal procedures for changing the treaty. article 105. 6 can be applied if unanimously agreed by the member states and with the assent of the european parliament. this article could also be used to address

have an even better understanding of the link between macroeconomic and financial surveillance. closer collaboration between global institutions such as the international monetary fund and the informal grouping that is the financial stability forum would be helpful. in addition, the imf needs to improve its surveillance, including financial surveillance, especially as regards systemically important countries. we have for a long time concentrated on the surveillance of developing and emerging economies, while industrial economies considered themselves to be largely immune to international advice. the crisis provides the painful lesson that industrial economies also need surveillance – indeed, rigorous surveillance. all international institutions and fora should reflect on how to strengthen their surveillance and its effectiveness in fostering policy adjustment. this is clearly a long and difficult agenda, and we may still not have all the answers yet. but europe can play a leading role. we need to continue pursuing stability - oriented policies with a medium to long - term orientation within europe. and we can foster international cooperation with the aim of having such policies pursued also at the global level and thereby prevent a return to the status quo ante. again, the current crisis is an obligation to correct the fundamental causes of persisting imbalances, in the global financial system as well as in the setting of macroeconomic policies. the focus on sustainability and medium - term stability is a useful guidepost in this context. thank you for your attention.