are only now beginning to realise how dependent their economy has been and still is on eu membership. many problems became only obvious during the exit negotiations – most of which were never an issue during the leave campaign. i think that compartmentalisation helping the national economy is a dangerous illusion which does not provide substantial solutions to serious challenges. there has never been such a mythological nation - state, and it certainly doesn ’ t exist in the era of the internet, smartphones and mass air travel. what then is sovereignty in the 21st century? it is the capacity to decide rationally about where cooperation is, on balance, better than going it alone, even if it entails unpleasant compromises. 1 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches 3 the rationale for international cooperation in financial regulation following that, it seems reasonable to approach many areas of the economy in an internationally cooperative, rules - based manner. financial regulation, in my opinion, continues to be one area conducive to this approach, as we want to prevent a regulatory race to the bottom and to ensure fair competition, i. e. a level playing field. it was in that spirit that the g 20, led by the united states, spearheaded the efforts to tackle the financial crisis. the g 20 efforts have created a rational, viable approach to international cooperation that is in the interest of all member states – its principles should therefore remain pillars of the regulation of international finance. it is built on close transatlantic and international cooperation between our central banks and our regulators and supervisors. it also rests on the joint work in international regulatory fora to foster our mutual understanding and the common language we have developed over the past thirty years. this approach also builds on a whole body of international minimum standards, like the basel iii regime for internationally active banks that we have developed over the last ten years. the basel iii standards have proven to be a success story, as they are the foundation for banking regulation in more than 100 countries. 4 the illusion of the global level playing field ladies and gentlemen, as we strive to prevent a race to the bottom and maintain a fair, level playing field, i am convinced that international, rules - based cooperation is – and should remain – the method of choice not only, but in particular in the area of financial regulation. at the same time, i am less convinced that basel iii is a “ one size fits all ” approach and that adherence to international standards makes national supervision redundant. basel standards are minimum standards that cannot cover each and

hans georg fabritius : the euro - arab economic dialogue keynote speech by dr hans georg fabritius, a member of the board of the deutsche bundesbank, at the international arab banking summit 2005 - “ the euro - arab economic dialogue ”, frankfurt / main, 23 june 2005. * * * ladies and gentlemen it is an honour and a pleasure to speak today at the international arab banking summit here in frankfurt. i strongly welcome the organisers ’ intention of enhancing future cooperation prospects between europe and the arab world. both regions are indeed engaged in a strategic economic partnership, which of course has a lot to do with the fact that europe, like other developed economies, is oil - dependent. over the course of time trade relations between europe and the arab world have clearly intensified. for instance, german exports to the region increased by more than 10 % last year. although this is broadly in line with overall export growth in germany, the strong increase occurred against broadly unfavourable exchange rate developments, given that the currencies of most arab countries move in parallel with the us dollar. like trade in general, these developments have been to the benefit of both regions. a telling story of these mutual advantages is the fact that for europe in general, and for germany in particular, the dampening effects of the recent oil price shocks have been eased by a faster recycling of oil revenues in the oil producing countries. this was made possible by increased foreign demand for european products in arab countries. as imports from europe play a much more important role for oil producing countries than imports from the united states, an oil price increase under unchanged trade structures leads to a demand shift in favour of europe. to a certain degree, this is cushioning the adverse energy price effect. against this background closer trade links between europe and the arab world are highly welcome. this deserves our special attention for another reason : intensified trade relations also lead to a strengthening of financial relations. therefore, i appreciate conferences like the one today and consider them an eminent effort to improve mutual understanding of the beneficial economic effects of further cooperation. although this example alone might suffice to steer us away from the one - sided view that the arab economy is nothing more than an oil producing sector, it is undoubtedly worthwhile to take a closer look at the economic developments in the arab world. as i understand from the programme, the aim of today ’ s conference is just that – to take a closer look at these economic developments. i do not intend to