of persons within the union without border controls are so vital : they are visible signs of european integration. one of the things that we are most frequently confronted with is money. we use money many times a day, money governs all our economic activities. sometimes, money even assumes a symbolic character that goes far beyond its actual functions as a means of exchange, unit of account and store of value. take, for instance, austria and germany, where the schilling and the deutsche mark became symbols of reconstruction and economic prosperity in the post - world war ii decades. similarly, the us dollar is a symbol of us economic and political power in the world. in the same way, i believe, the euro is a symbol of european integration and europe ’ s increasing role in the world. so, when from january 2002 onwards, you take out a euro banknote or coin to pay the newspaper, you will be reminded that you are a citizen of europe. and, once you have discovered that the euro is quite a practical and useful thing to have, this might also strengthen your feeling that european integration is a cause worth all our best efforts. thank you very much for your attention!

, in other words, even just from the point of view of our standard regulatory approach, we have to make some modifications on how we define credit risk, default risk, and all the financial risks that regulated entities face. so, clearly, the regulatory side has to make more adjustments. climate change – change for the better? 1 / 3 bis - central bankers'speeches now, the other one, of course, is - in many ways - things that reduce our contribution to greenhouse gases could also improve our lives. for instance, the shift to electric tricycles, it is good for us. my sister lives in up village, and she complains that the tricycles wake her up. i am glad that we are already out of the noisier, two - stroke [ engine ] motorcycles, which also pollute more. so, clearly, many of our responses to climate change are also good for us. of course, they would say, " well, it is going to be more expensive. " but, maybe, that is a short - run point of view. the more we do these things, the greater the scale of the innovations that will happen, and, maybe, the greater the efficiencies. indeed, i remember the times when, the financial incentives needed for wind and solar [ energy ] were just extremely high. now, the technologies have improved to the point where it is getting quite competitive [ with non - renewable energy sources ]. however, [ using ] renewable energy is not without problems. for instance, there are issues meeting peak demand for power. with renewables, power may be available when you do not need it and unavailable when the need arises. obviously, if our ability to store power improves - which it will over time - the sustainable ways of doing these things may actually, in the long run, become the better ways of doing things. in the morning, i try to run as much as i can. what if it is just easier to do more walking to get to where you work? so, you would actually save a lot of time, right? in other words, if you will take a longer and wider view, the things that are consistent with a better planet are also good for everyday life. navigating the ensuing policy issues of course, [ addressing ] the policy questions are harder. we already know that one of the policy questions is [ how we refine our ] regulatory frameworks for assessing riskiness of banks and