practices through increased co - ordination of member states ’ structural policies. work to date in the field of structural reforms remains insufficient even if progress is being made, as was assessed by the european council of barcelona last march. some advances have been registered in certain sectors with regard to the implementation of the strategy defined in lisbon : to eliminate the hindrances to the free exchange of services, to reduce the overall level of state aid and to boost the level of liberalization. we still have a long way to go : whereas the integration of good markets is relatively advanced, shortcomings still exist with regard to the full integration of service industries. most of the barriers to trade in services appear to be due to national regulations. developments would be necessary for instance with regard to the further opening of the public procurement market. as regards the labour market, the european council of lisbon fixed as a central objective the rise of the employment rate of our populations from 60 to 70 % in 10 years. as a comparison, the same rate stands at 75 % in the usa. continental europe is therefore still experiencing levels of unemployment that are too high, although it has been declining in most of its economies over the past years. according to the imf and the oecd and the constituency of central bankers, 75 % of unemployment in the euro zone is of a structural nature, i. e. generated by an environment which handicaps job creation. it is thus necessary to put an end to the neo - malthusian behaviour which is still anchored in our economies. completing a fully integrated european capital market : in 1999, as soon as the euro was launched, one of the expected advantages was the prospect of deeper, larger and more integrated capital markets contributing to reducing the cost of capital for businesses and giving european savers a greater range of saving options. these expectations have become realities in both the money market and longer - term capital markets. however, there are still some barriers to further integration of eu capital markets. in this regard, the eurosystem welcomed the ambitious financial services action plan ( fsap ) launched by the european council in lisbon in 2000. this plan is aimed at harmonising and improving the conditions under which issuers, investors and intermediaries conduct their activities in the european union. the european council set a tight timetable so that this plan can be implemented by 2005, and even sooner, by 2003, as regards the measures relating to the securities markets. at present, 30 out the 42 fsap

across europe, is evidence of the widespread support in the market for the project. not only have the csds of all euro area countries signed the memorandum of understanding, but also the csds of seven eu countries outside the euro area – denmark, estonia, latvia, lithuania, romania, sweden and the uk – and two csds from countries outside the eu – iceland and switzerland. furthermore, the csds of denmark, lithuania and sweden have – with the consent of their central bank and with the support of their markets – also confirmed their intention to provide for settlement of their national currency in t2s, in addition to settlements in euro. we are grateful for the support of the csds and market participants more widely. this support has helped us to define a product which is fully in line with market needs. i am aware that it translated through all levels of the institutions – political as well as operational levels – and it has generated a momentum which makes me confident that we will also achieve the future milestones of the t2s project in good time. in the coming months, many of the key decisions will have to be made in preparation for the start of the development phase of the project which is scheduled for early next year. the signing of the memorandum of understanding will therefore pave the way for these decisions. we will need to discuss not only the governance of the platform and the contractual relations between the eurosystem and the csds, but also of course the pricing structure. i am confident that the discussions will be as diverse and fruitful as they have been so far, and that today marks another important milestone for the success of t2s project. thank you for your attention.