in order to raise the long - term growth potential of europe. and the lucid monitoring of the national competitive indicators, including unit labour costs. mr president of the parliament, mr president of the union, mr president of the commission, mr president of the eurogroup, europe can count on the ecb and on the eurosystem to implement in this century the historic task which was assigned to us at the end of the last century. we will be faithful to the primary mandate given to us by the treaty. we know that our fellow citizens are asking us to deliver price stability. we know also that price stability is a prerequisite for financial stability, a very important objective at the current juncture. all the members of the governing council make their decisions taking into account the interests of the whole of the euro area, of 15 countries. we do not consider any particular country, but all 15 of them. sehr geehrte frau bundeskanzlerin, this year in aachen, upon receiving the charlemagne prize, you quoted konrad adenauer : “ gerade in aachen wird man die mahnung verstehen, dass europa uns heute schicksalsgemeinschaft ist. dieses schicksal zu gestalten ist uns ubergeben ”. “ in aachen, above all, people will understand the call : that europe, for us today, is a community with a common destiny. it's up to us to shape that destiny. ” “ justement ici a aix on comprend l ’ appel qui fait de l ’ europe aujourd ’ hui notre destin commun. il nous appartient de donner forme a ce destin. ” a “ common destiny ” : the words of the man with whom general de gaulle achieved reconciliation after so many conflicts. these words apply even more to the countries belonging to the euro area. in the ecb and in the eurosystem we are fully convinced that, with our fellow citizens, 320 million of them, we share a destiny in common – wir teilen dasselbe schicksal – nous partageons un destin en commun. i thank you for your attention.

in an environment of price stability. for fiscal policies the challenge and opportunity is to use the current economic expansion to intensify the necessary further consolidation of public finances. in a number of member states the budgetary situation is still too far from reaching the targets specified in the stability and growth pact, namely that budgets are to be in surplus or at least close to balance. moreover, the recent reduction in deficits has been greatly helped by the relatively low levels of interest rates and by improving economic conditions. according to most forecasts, fiscal trends over this year and the next even point to a procyclical stance rather than to prudent anticyclical policies. the overriding goal for fiscal policy should be to shelter governments ’ budgets from normal cyclical fluctuations, but also from unexpected shortfalls in revenues and interest rate increases. in addition, governments ’ budgetary policies also need to urgently address longer - term issues in the context of the imminent problem of ageing populations. many governments are as yet insufficiently prepared for this problem, inasmuch as they are still highly indebted and are not pursuing the structural reform of public transfer systems with sufficient vigour. the assessment that much has been achieved, but that, at the same time, much remains to be done, also holds true in the case of general economic policies. the structural reform of labour and product markets remains the key to achieving significant reductions in unemployment. there is by now broad consensus on the fact that the larger part of the still very high level of unemployment in the euro area is of a structural nature. only flexible labour markets will prevent bottlenecks from emerging and triggering upward pressures on prices at a relatively early stage of the current economic upswing. looking at the regulatory reform process across the euro area, a good deal of deregulation and liberalisation of previously sheltered sectors have taken place in recent years. there remains significant scope for further action along these lines. in regulated industries, a low level of competition is often accompanied by a high level of public ownership. privatisation and regulatory reform should thus be seen as mutually reinforcing measures. the favourable impact of such measures in terms of lower price increases has become clear in the case of the telecommunications and energy sectors. this should be encouragement enough to step up efforts in other sectors. notwithstanding significant demands on labour mobility in the short term, increased competition in previously sheltered sectors will usually result in longer - term employment gains. responsible wage policies are of crucial importance