lucas papademos : ecb financial stability review june 2006 opening remarks by mr lucas papademos, vice president of the european central bank, at the press briefing on the occasion of the publication of the june 2006 ecb financial stability review, frankfurt am main, 1 june 2006. the slides and charts for this speech can be found on the ecb website at www. ecb. int. * * * ladies and gentlemen, 1. introduction welcome to this press briefing on the occasion of the presentation of the june 2006 edition of the ecb ’ s financial stability review. as usual, the financial stability assessment contained in the review reflects the input of a significant number of experts, and it builds on both inter - departmental work within the ecb and very close collaboration with the escb banking supervision committee. the report that has been made available to you follows the same overall structure as the previous reviews which the ecb has been publishing semi - annually since december 2004. however, the scope of the analysis has been broadened to include dedicated sections on the euro area commercial property markets, credit risk transfer market issues and hedge funds. specific themes of particular interest have been addressed in a total of 17 boxes. there are also three special feature articles, notably a discussion of macro - level stress testing practices across eu countries, an assessment of banking system risk using extreme value analysis, and an investigation of the driving forces behind eu banks ’ stock returns. i should note that the review uses data that was available up to 5 may 2006. in my presentation ( some of the slides ), i will refer to developments since this cut - off date. in presenting the main findings of the analysis, i will broadly follow the structure of the review ( as outlined on slide 2 ). 2. overview of the main risks and vulnerabilities i would like to begin with an overview of some pertinent developments in the euro area financial system and of the main sources of risk and vulnerabilities for euro area financial stability, in comparison to the assessment in the december 2005 review. overall, the developments since last december lend support to the view that the euro area financial system is robust and well - capable of withstanding shocks. first, the pace of global economic activity has strengthened and it has become more evenly distributed. second, the balance sheets of euro area banks and insurance companies have continued to strengthen. at the same time, these positive developments are clouded by the fact that the risks and vulnerabilities we

vitor constancio : interview with spiegel online interview with mr vitor constancio, vice - president of the european central bank, and spiegel online, conducted by mr stefan kaiser and mr henning jauernig on 22 may 2018 and published on 29 may 2018. * * * mr constancio, you ’ ve worked at the european central bank for 18 years. was there ever a moment when you thought that maybe the euro wasn ’ t such a good idea after all? no. there were times at the height of the crisis when there were existential doubts about how things would turn out. but i was never in any doubt that monetary union was the right thing for european countries. but there were some very severe crises. in 2012, for example, when the risk premia for spanish and italian government bonds rose dramatically and there was a risk that the euro area might break apart. or in 2015, when greece was close to bankruptcy. didn ’ t that demonstrate that the euro area doesn ’ t work well? the problems were a consequence of the way the euro area was set up to start with, which was very minimalistic. at the time, it was felt that all we needed was a single currency, a central bank and a fiscal brake. but events have shown that that wasn ’ t enough. for example, a crisis mechanism was not envisaged and there was no banking supervision at the european level. a number of important decisions have been taken in the meantime, for instance on the banking union and the european stability mechanism. the euro area has started to fix itself – and we ’ re still in the middle of that process. have the countries in the south of the euro area done enough on their side to fix monetary union? yes. the countries hardest hit by the crisis had high budget deficits and high current account deficits at the start of the crisis. so they were importing a lot more than they were exporting. but a great deal has been done since then. in the meantime, all the countries concerned have a primary fiscal surplus, which means that they are reducing their debt bit by bit. and all these countries now have a current account surplus ; they are exporting more than they import. that is quite a turnaround. these achievements are now hanging in the balance because one country may no longer want to do its part. even if their attempt to form a government has failed for now, italy ’ s dominant parties are euros