as to stimulate activities in other sectors of the economy, too. governments and social partners have started initiatives to enable labour markets to function more efficiently. the remarkable performance in employment growth in the past few years also reflects an increasing proportion in part - time employment and points to some improvements in labour market flexibility. further improvements in labour markets can be supported from many sides. the social partners will play a key role by adhering further to a path of moderate wage increases, in line with price stability, and taking into account both productivity developments and the need to reduce the level of unemployment further. the benefits of such behaviour have already been seen. moreover, there is a broad consensus that the larger part of the still high level of unemployment is of a structural nature ; this challenge needs to be addressed continuously by policies which remove structural rigidities from the labour markets and which diminish adverse incentives provided by tax, benefit and pension systems. ongoing structural reform will be particularly important with regard to the changing character of jobs in an economy which needs to be open to rapid advances in new technologies and globalisation. the governing council feels that the first 22 months of monetary union have been very successful. it is determined to continue addressing the challenges related to monetary policy and is confident that other policy areas will play their part in the overall policy framework of the community and the euro area.

sabine lautenschlager : european banking supervision - towards a common culture statement by ms sabine lautenschlager, member of the executive board of the european central bank and vice - chair of the supervisory board of the european central bank, at the eurofi financial forum 2018, vienna, 6 september 2018. * * * since 2014, we have made huge steps towards establishing a truly european system of banking supervision and embracing a common supervisory culture. does this mean nothing more needs to be done? not quite. for a fully - fledged common culture you need to have three things : first, you need a truly unified legal basis. you simply cannot build a comprehensive common supervisory culture if you have to apply a different set of rules in each of the 19 countries. just think how we need to treat fit and proper assessments differently from one country to the next. second, you need harmonised administrative practices. and here, we have made good progress in the last four years – wherever the legislator granted us scope. we established practices for all the major areas of supervision, such as the srep, the treatment of npls, stress tests, the icaap, the ilaap, and so on. third, you need time and cooperation. after all, staff from 19 countries and 26 authorities have to be persuaded to leave their cultural comfort zone and align how they think, assess and act. i measure how far we have come by the frequency with which banks ask about changes in supervisory actions. in other words : how often do banks complain about changes in the way they are being supervised? they complain a great deal, i can tell you. and we keep pushing forward. let me give you just a few examples : we strive to increase the number of cross - border on - site missions, with even more on - site supervisors working on banks outside their home country. the success of this initiative will largely depend on the number of on - site supervisors the national authorities are willing to send. we have established a rotation scheme for members of our joint supervisory teams. this too will help to spread a common culture. at the same time, it helps to avoid supervisory capture. we foster exchange between supervisors from across the euro area. we bring them together in many different working groups to devise training manuals and supervisory guidance. but the ecb cannot create a common supervisory culture by itself. the national authorities can and should contribute, too. i understand, of course, that it is difficult to let