the imbalances of the spanish economy. in particular, they will be monitoring and assessing the extent of cooperative behaviour to overcome the crisis. i ’ m going to conclude with a few words on europe, as i believe our membership of the european union and of the monetary union is another good reason for viewing optimistically our possibilities of overcoming the crisis. some measures need no further explanation, as they clearly show how europe has helped us and continues to help us during this crisis. a case in point is the decisions we have taken in frankfurt since the start of the crisis, such as interest rate cuts, the unlimited supply of liquidity, bond purchases and three - year refinancing operations, which, while aimed at resolving problems of the euro area as a whole, have proven particularly beneficial for spain. but there are other less evident instances, such as when europe obliges us to use competitive procedures to award banks that have been taken over or oversees the granting of public aid. admittedly, this makes bank restructuring a lengthier and more complex process, but it should be acknowledged that it helps spain ensure that sell - offs are open to all new managers that may be interested and that the taxpayer ’ s money is better allocated. the help of the european institutions should likewise be appreciated when, in compliance with the new economic governance framework, they obliged the spanish authorities to be rigorous in cutting the budget deficit. this has not been to the liking of some but, however we view it, it is rightly one more reason to be confident about spain ’ s possibility of emerging from the crisis. the discipline required by europe, which may prove uncomfortable and even debatable in the short term, has, like monetary discipline, extraordinarily positive effects on our economy in the medium term. it is as though spaniards had taken out insurance so that our governments, authorities and companies cannot take decisions that harm spain in the long run. while we should be proud of our many achievements these years past, we must also be ready to listen to others, particularly and attentively so to the european institutions which, lest we forget, have been buying us time so that we can see through our adjustments. it is not the time for pessimism, but nor is it for complacency. what we must do is fruitfully use the time we have. thank you. bis central bankers ’ speeches

##ing losses and increasing shareholder value, and not about maintaining power, or the level of early retirements, or about where headquarters should be established. in integration operations, processes such as determining shares of interest are reasonably easy to agree upon, since it suffices to make a proper valuation and to assign to each party what corresponds to it. but those who have followed the news in recent years will have witnessed the long drawn - out discussions, on a flimsy economic basis, that have been necessary to determine the power apportioned to each player in savings bank integrations. before their transformation into banks, observance of the legal structure of savings banks meant that their restructuring could only move forward very gradually, step by step and with great prudence. the clearest example was the constitution of institutional bis central bankers ’ speeches protection schemes initially, without which it would have been extremely difficult to finally bring about inter - regional mergers. today some of these problems have already been resolved thanks to these seven laws that have gradually improved the resolution instruments available at the start of the crisis. for instance, with all savings banks having converted de facto into banks, the current situation differs greatly from that at the start of the process, when the regional governments had the power to veto mergers. and although the perseverance and skill of the bank ’ s supervisory arm managed to convince most regional governments of the inevitability of merging with savings banks from other territories, there have been cases in which sounder inter - regional alternatives were turned down for the sake of mergers which, though they were viable in the scenario then foreseen for the spanish economy and avoided, moreover, more costly interventions for taxpayers, were clearly worse than the mergers suggested by the supervisor. as encouraging examples of spain ’ s achievements during these years, i have chosen the progress made in correcting the current - account deficit and in financial restructuring. however, i could have chosen other actions. for instance, the pension reform law has made historically significant changes and, if its sustainability provisions are properly implemented, will enable not only the pensions of our generation, but also of our children ’ s, to be paid without problem. spain has been one of the first european countries to have incorporated a balanced budget requirement into its constitution, with broad parliamentary backing. a more recent example is labour - market reform. this is of great importance, because spain had not taken such a significant step in this area since the 1984 reform. if the 1984 reform allowed spain