most important lesson of all, the independence of statistical institutes is key to the quality and integrity of the underlying statistics. recent incidents involving government finance statistics have demonstrated this very clearly. the compilation and reporting of statistics must not be vulnerable to political and electoral cycles. countries should consider the quality and integrity of their statistics as a priority matter, to ensure that a proper system of checks and balances is in place when compiling these statistics, and should apply minimum standards, reinforcing the independence, integrity and accountability of national statistical institutes. despite the significant achievements and the good quality of euro area statistics in general, further improvements and enhancements are planned. ongoing economic transformation has to be accommodated in a forward - looking manner and statistical gaps identified by users inside and outside the ecb have to be filled in as far as possible. given the long lead times which characterise statistical projects, the directorate general statistics of the ecb has established medium - term priorities in this field. important items on this agenda are : a full system of euro area quarterly accounts for each institutional sector1, more comprehensive statistics for the monitoring and analysis of financial stability, the further development of external statistics, promoting the compilation of principal european economic indicators, including the application of the first - for - europe principle, and an increasing focus on the various quality dimensions of european statistics. let me elaborate a bit more on the first two items. progress in these areas is expected to have a major influence on policy analysis. the work currently undertaken by the ecb and eurostat on quarterly euro area accounts aims at a fully integrated system of sectoral financial and non - financial accounts. having such a system in place may lead over time to major progress in both the structural analysis of the euro area and the assessment of the current economic situation. fully integrated sectoral accounts provide the ideal framework for analysing the structure of the economy and its changes over time as well as the propagation of shocks through the system. this helps to gain further insights into the monetary policy transmission mechanism and the relative importance of the various transmission channels. at the same time, monitoring a wide range of key indicators in a single macroeconomic accounting framework provides a coherent picture of the current economic situation. this is particularly important in the context of the ecb ’ s monetary policy strategy, which takes into account a broad range of indicators. integrated financial and non - financial sector accounts provide a framework for analysing the link between the financial and the real economy - an issue notoriously difficult to anal

- round effects on wages from a sharp rise in oil prices are limited. this goes a long way towards explaining why, unlike what happened during the 1973 and 1979 oil crises, nominal wages have not been caught up in an inflationary spiral in recent years. no doubt driven on by the same desire for competitiveness, but also by the need to rein in public finances and inflation, i understand that the luxembourg government also decided in spring 2006, after negotiating with the social partners in the tripartite coordination committee, to adjust the automatic indexation mechanism until 2009, by delaying the point in time when wages are indexed. and it decided to neutralise certain taxes, excise duties, fees and other contributions in the reference index for index - linking. while the indexation system, after being thoroughly reformed, remains an acquired right for both employees and for recipients of social benefits, the total development in private - sector wages has also been controlled since 1996 by the wage norm - another distinctive feature of the belgian system. this indicative norm is set every two years by the social partners ( employers and trade unions ) in line with the expected evolution of hourly labour costs in the three main neighbouring countries ( germany, france and the netherlands ). it builds into the wage - formation process an explicit reference to the external situation and thus the competitiveness of the economy. it is a strong coordinating tool for negotiations at sectoral level. among these sectors, the so - called " all - in " agreements, introducing a corrective mechanism in the event of higher indexation than anticipated during the negotiations, have mushroomed. all in all, i would say that if we didn ’ t have wage indexation, we wouldn ’ t have to invent it. but, taking account of the built - in control features, now keeping it within limits, indexation in belgium is not - or to be more precise, is no longer - the bugbear still decried by so many international institutions. 3. on the other hand, i wholeheartedly share these same international institutions ’ opinion on the need to raise the rate of employment in belgium. at just 61 p. c. of the population aged between 15 and 64, belgium ’ s employment rate is still noticeably lower than the average in europe, not to mention other parts of the world. the boost it needs concerns, in particular, those groups that are under - represented on the labour market – young people, women, people of foreign origin and especially the relatively older groups