Several obstacles have been identified in the recent Report of the Committee of Wise Men, chaired by Alexandre Lamfalussy. The Committee proposes to speed up the removal of impediments through the institutionalisation of two new regulatory committees for securities markets, which should allow for an increased harmonisation of securities regulation and less burdensome procedures for adapting Community rules to rapidly changing financial markets.
Keeping in mind the all-important proviso that policy is never predetermined but is always data dependent, what can we say about the appropriate path of policy, assuming the most likely outcomes for real activity, inflation, and related factors? The answer is that it depends, of course, on one’s outlook for the economy.