transformations in economic and financial relations globally force us to re - think the design of economic policies in order to better contribute to the progress of our society. in particular, these forums are instrumental for central banks in its role of providing guidance for economic policies that are not in their mandates. let me add that in order to exert this role of assessing public policies, central banks need to be granted with political and operational independence, in order to provide recommendations free from political pressure or vested interests. the theme of this conference, financial integration and inclusive development, is particularly timely at this current juncture of the world economy. global economic growth is at its lowest level since the global financial crisis, partly as a consequence of the high level of uncertainty surrounding trade and international relations. this weakness of the global economic landscape is adding to the new challenges that have emerged over the last decades : population aging, migration, security threats, the emergence of new economic and political powers, and climate change, to mention only some. and this evolution has taken place in an era of increasing globalization, that is being threatened by the emergence 2 / 3 of protectionist measures, and of digitalization and rapid development of new technologies. together, these developments constitute a new frontier for policies that make it necessary to promote mutual understanding and make extensive coordinated efforts in the field of policies. in order to preserve the benefits derived from financial interconnectedness and technological innovation, it is now of the essence to put in place an internationally agreed response that allows to achieve the benefits of innovation while ensuring the mitigation of its potential risks. policy - makers have the responsibility to support the research and analysis to base to foster growth and fight inequalities. in this conference we are going to debate on a number of challenges that our countries are currently facing : from technological innovations in finance to migration flows in search for better opportunities, going through increasing financial interdependences or the need of boosting financial education. i have no doubt that the quality of the discussions we have today will allow us to deepen our understanding of these challenges and, hopefully, allow us to draw some useful conclusion in terms of economic policy. i leave the floor now to mr. isidro gonzalez, deputy secretary general of the union for the mediterranean, thanking him as well as you all for your presence here today, and thanking mr. senen florensa, president of the executive committee of iemed, for the cooperation in the organisation of this event. now

we are also exploring, together with the co - legislators, the possibility of attaining a higher degree of privacy in situations considered of low risk, such as online transactions for amounts below a certain threshold or offline payments, since they need to be carried out in close proximity. full anonymity, however, is not considered a viable option from a public policy perspective. complete visibility by the eurosystem is not deemed desirable either, so it would be limited to what is strictly necessary to perform its tasks or is required by regulation. last, but not least, we have assessed different ways to ensure a digital euro is used as a means of payment rather than as a store of value. both holding limits and remuneration - based tools are considered effective means to limit the use of a digital euro as a form of investment. however, no decision has been made yet on the precise 4 / 6 bis - central bankers'speeches way they should be combined or the parameters to use. rather, a more flexible approach has been agreed, ensuring that the design of the digital euro includes a wide set of tools, while leaving the decision on which ones to actually implement to a later stage. these foundational design decisions, which were recently endorsed by the governing council, 2 are an important stepping stone but constitute only the tip of the iceberg of our analysis. we have continued exploring design and distribution options and we are close to reaching a decision on the settlement model, the distribution model, the role of intermediaries and the basic principles that funding and defunding functionalities should observe. involving all relevant parties in these decisions is of utmost importance, and that is why we are actively engaging with a large number of stakeholders, not only from the industry but also end - users and european institutions. our analysis is not conceptual only. we are also developing a prototype that will help us validate the different design decisions. in order to do so, the eurosystem is building the back - end infrastructure and we have requested the cooperation of the private sector to provide end - user interfaces. an expression of interest was launched last april and five companies have been selected from a pool of 54 front - end providers. 3 this will allow us to test end - to - end transactions for different use cases, both online and offline. this prototype, which is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2023, is only relevant for investigation purposes, and there is no plan to reuse it in a production environment