battle of salamis against the persians led to an expansion of the democratic institutions already introduced by cleisthenes. in democratic athens, all citizens enjoyed equality before the law, as well as equality of vote and equal opportunity to assume political office. the population doubled during the years of pericles, with thousands of immigrants contributing to the demographic growth of athens. ancient greeks conducted free trade with almost every part of the then known world, from the black sea to sicily, right up to the pillars of hercules, in today's gibraltar, founding colonies along the way. this commercial activity allowed, at the same time, invaluable cultural exchanges. the athenians managed available capital according to demand and supply, even initiating large - scale public works when unemployment was high. they turned economic prosperity into a warm place for art, science and culture to bloom. on the antipode, ancient greece can also teach us lessons to be avoided : in particular, how the lack of unity, or division and rivalry, which was the case between ancient citystates, can bring about a devastating conflict such as the peloponnesian war, which crippled greek military strength, bringing the most culturally advanced greek city - state, athens, into decline. luckily, there stand monuments, like the acropolis you see outside, that remind us of all these and of some core developments in the history of democracy and human creativity, which first emerged at the time of pericles but remain valid and pertinent to this day. it is a miracle that we are able to behold such iconic monuments and be reminded of the values they represent, which are at the core of our contemporary european identity and shape what it means to be a european citizen today. 3 / 4 bis - central bankers'speeches speaking of what it means to be a european citizen today, i would like to say farewell to my dear colleague ignazio visco, since this is his last governing council meeting after twelve years at the helm of banca d'italia. with ignazio, we have travelled together a long journey in the last several years. during this journey, full of storms but also some sunny periods, we have appreciated his integrity, intellectual honesty, wisdom, judgement, common sense, diligence and positive attitude. he has remained a true european citizen, faithful to the euro, supporting it in its most difficult times. a central banker who believes that price stability, financial stability and full employment can coexist if the

ensuring their effectiveness and respecting the existing accountability arrangements at the national level. the bank of greece has a strong interest in the outcome of this debate, in which it actively participates, in the hope that an optimum balance will be reached. needless to say, this interest also reflects the fact that the bank of greece is both the host supervisor for incoming eu banks and the home supervisor for outgoing greek banks, which are expanding mostly to the neighbouring balkan countries, some of which are preparing to implement the eu framework. in performing its roles, as mentioned above, the bank of greece consistently follows policies that encourage the european integration process and refrains from creating unnecessary administrative burdens or erecting other obstacles, without, of course, putting the effectiveness of its supervisory tasks at risk. other regulatory initiatives • in parallel with the preparation for the new supervisory framework's implementation, discussions are under way regarding the revision of the directive on deposit guarantee schemes and the electronic money directive. • another major issue that has sparked considerable controversy concerns the so - called supervisory approval process. the debate was initially triggered by certain market participants, who fear it to be an obstacle to cross - border mergers and acquisitions. the bank of greece and the central banks of many other countries have repeatedly stated that isolated cases, in which a misuse of supervisory powers may have occurred, should not be generalised. in greece, as it is the case in the eu as a whole, the supervisory authorities base their decisions regarding the merger or acquisition by a foreign institution of a domestic bank strictly on supervisory criteria. the new decision - making structure for financial services apart from the introduction of the new capital adequacy framework, another radical change that has been introduced involves the decision - making process at the eu level for the financial sector, also known as the lamfalussy process. a new financial services committee architecture has been established. the lamfalussy approach, which was originally elaborated for the securities sector, now extends to the banking and insurance sector, as well. given the time constraint, an extensive presentation of the lamfalussy framework would probably be inappropriate. however, there is reason to underline some of its main objectives, which are : • to develop regulation that can adapt quickly to new market developments and practices, support integration and enhance eu competitiveness, and • to strengthen cross - border and cross - sector cooperation among supervisory authorities and the convergence of day - to - day supervisory practices and implementation. it is worth mentioning that the new