all because there is no longer any exchange rate risk and because transaction costs are lower. austria is doing very well in international markets : at nearly 34 %, austria recorded the highest export share of gdp ever in 2000. this ratio had come to only 25 % when the country joined the eu and had risen to just under 30 % before participation in emu. not only did emu and the euro improve the external economic environment, it also required business and industry to make incisive operational and technical changes. companies had to establish new strategic positions on their markets and had to adjust to the more intense competition, which has shifted more and more to quality considerations. the euro and the single market have boosted product and service innovation in many areas and have thus added to europe's competitive strength. turning briefly to the developments during the first three years of emu, they bear impressive testimony to the fact that the smooth interplay between monetary and fiscal policy provides a solid foundation which was well suited to weathering the economic policy challenges of this period. monetary union and the euro have kept the euro area countries from being exposed to harmful intraeuropean exchange rate tensions of the type that many countries used to suffer when external shocks occurred. some of you may have not so fond memories of the ems crises of the years 1992 and 1993. it has become quite obvious that austria's inclusion in the stability - oriented economic and monetary union has protected our country from negative shocks much more adequately than was possible under past regimes. beyond emu – further political integration and enlargement emu represents a quantum leap in integration, a key step in completing the single european market. of course, competition is most pronounced within emu itself. monetary union - and only monetary union - guarantees that the single market can utilize the full potential of its economic power on the basis of a stable common currency and that the growing pressure of international competition on europe is buffered. the deepening of the european union that accompanies emu and the euro is therefore not simply the most suitable response to internationalization and globalization, but also a bulwark against any maneuvers to reverse liberalization in europe. deepening of european integration is crucial especially for small open economies like austria and luxembourg. by introducing the euro, european economic policymakers have assumed the responsibility for exploiting the opportunities and for addressing the challenges this move represents for austria or luxembourg and for europe as a whole. we must continue to observe the provisions of the stability and growth pact,

conference banque de france ” opportunities and challenges of the tokenisation of finance : which role for central banks? ” tuesday 27 september 2022 concluding remarks by denis beau, first deputy governor let me first start by thanking you all for attending this conference, both online and in person. i believe this large audience speaks to the significance of the issues that we have discussed together today and the depth and quality of today ’ s exchanges, which covered a wide variety of topics, were impressive. it is a tall order to summarise such rich discussions in so little time. i will only try to highlight three lessons i take away from each of the roundtables and chart a possible way forward. the first lesson i take away from this conference is that we could be at a turning point in the development of the crypto - asset ecosystem. • over the past few years, the crypto - asset landscape has experienced a significant growth, buoyed in part by the low interest rate environment. it has expanded its initial scope and started offering more sophisticated products, getting increasingly complex and interwoven with traditional finance, with the emergence of defi. • however, recent tensions in the crypto - asset ecosystem, amidst a normalisation of monetary policy, raise questions about ( i ) first, its correlation with other types of risky assets and ( ii ) second, their sensitivity to changes in the monetary policy stance. the ongoing stress in the crypto - asset market is also altering the dynamics of the ecosystem, sparking bankruptcies and leading toward greater concentration. page 1 / 3 • in addition, the development of crypto - asset and defi comes with significant policy challenges for public authorities, that were highlighted in our discussions today : o first, they raise the question of how to regulate market players, which are not easily captured by existing regulation as they either lack central authority or may require close coordination between several regulatory and supervisory agencies due to the variety of their activities. o second, the rise of these new assets has led central banks to reflect on the appropriate balance between public money and private assets and the way in which access to public money could be ensured in the digital era through the issuance of central bank digital currency. the second takeaway is that private players identify substantial benefits associated with distributed ledger technologies and consider that an appropriate regulatory framework would help make the most of these technologies. • but we know from experience that public authorities need to act quickly, while this ecosystem is still nascent, to guide