##acent national policies. • third, the prevailing consensus assumed that financial crises would not occur in advanced economies but only in faraway places. “ when exercising the powers and carrying out the tasks and duties conferred upon them by the treaties and the statute of the escb and of the ecb, neither the european central bank, nor a national central bank, nor any member of their decision - making bodies shall seek or take instructions from union institutions, bodies, offices or agencies, from any government of a member state or from any other body. the union institutions, bodies, offices or agencies and the governments of the member states undertake to respect this principle and not to seek to influence the members of the decision - making bodies of the european central bank or of the national central banks in the performance of their tasks. ” ( art. 130 tfeu ) “ the primary objective of the european system of central banks ( hereinafter referred to as “ the escb ” ) shall be to maintain price stability. ” ( art. 127 ( 1 ) tfeu ) “ overdraft facilities or any other type of credit facility with the european central bank or with the central banks of the member states ( hereinafter referred to as “ national central banks ” ) in favour of union institutions, bodies, offices or agencies, central governments, regional, local or other public authorities, other bodies governed by public law, or public undertakings of member states shall be prohibited, as shall the purchase directly from them by the european central bank or national central banks of debt instruments. ” ( art. 123 : tfeu ) bis central bankers ’ speeches the first decade of the emu was promising. the favourable economic environment covered any weaknesses. now we are wiser. the design of the institutional framework proved porous in particular in four places : • first, the binding effect of the stability and growth pact was insufficient to establish appropriate incentives for prudent fiscal policies and to contain national developments which can cause damage to the union as a whole. • second, the framework lacked a mechanism which obliges national economic policy to a long - term growth strategy. • third, our framework turned out to be incapable of recognising risks in the financial sector at an early stage and to prevent imbalances that in the end destabilised entire economies. • finally, the disciplining function of the financial markets failed : even countries with drastic losses in competitiveness and exuberant debt

commission on regulatory aspects that need to be addressed. let me now turn to target2, the new rtgs system for the settlement in real time of predominantly high - value euro payments in central bank money as a perfect example of the ecb ’ s contribution to more integrated and harmonized financial markets. target2 provides a single integrated platform to replace 20 decentralized technical target platforms. it has been working very well from its start and provides the core, integrated and borderless infrastructure that europe needs. to give you a flavour of the scale of its service, in the first week after completing final migration target2 processed 1. 72 million payments amounting to a total of 16. 5 trillion euro. target2 is a practical example of a successful delivery by the eurosystem and banks, working together, of integrated infrastructure which embodies the process of harmonization. i also wish to congratulate the banque centrale du luxembourg and the luxembourguise banking community on this occasion for their remarkable contribution and excellent preparatory work, and for helping to pioneer the migration to the new system in november last year. i would like to turn now to another large integration project – namely target2 for securities, or t2s, as it is commonly known. in contrast with the current fragmented scenario, t2s will deliver a single technical platform to provide very secure and real time delivery versus payment for all classes of european securities against central bank money, replacing dozens of local platforms. this will create a single pool of securities, available to market users and service providers through their chosen csd. with t2s, the concept of cross - border settlement in europe will disappear. t2s will integrate the security settlement infrastructure as well as embody harmonization in important areas such as common interfaces, common set of rules for intra - day settlement finality, a common daily timetable, and common messages. these features are an immediate contribution to the elimination of 6 of the 15 so - called giovannini barriers. alexander schaub - european commission : “ removing regulatory barriers to international finance : pointers from the eu single market ”. dublin, 30th march. this will – of course – create substantial gains for the financial sector, but also for the society as a whole, through a reduction in costs and a better allocation of resources. there is no doubt that the economic gains will be substantial. t2s will contribute to increasing competition, more transparent pricing facilitating overall the trading activity. since t2s