Pablo Hernández de Cos: The EMU at 20 - from divergence to resilience

Welcome address by Mr Pablo Hernández de Cos, Governor of the Bank of Spain and Chairman of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, at the Third Annual Research Conference of the Bank of Spain, Madrid, 16 September 2019.

The views expressed in this speech are those of the speaker and not the view of the BIS.

Central bank speech  | 
16 September 2019

Ladies and gentlemen,

Let me start by welcoming you to the Banco de España for the Third Annual Research Conference. We began organising this conference three years ago, with the aim of bringing together leading scholars and policymakers to discuss frontier research on relevant topics. This year, the chosen topic is "The EMU at 20: current status and the way forward", which I think ranks highly in the current policy debate. It would be hard to imagine a more eminent group of researchers to discuss this topic. I would like to thank all of you for your attendance here today.

2019 marks the 20th anniversary of the creation of the euro. We reach this milestone in the context of a global macroeconomic deterioration, while still facing the legacy of the crisis, in terms of high unemployment rates and persistent levels of indebtedness.