Even today, the total stock of euro area bonds and equities currently held by US investors is worth around 1 trillion euro, while euro area investors hold US bonds and equities worth more than 2 trillion dollars. All this means that the situation of the financial sector in Europe has major spillovers for the global economy.
With monetary policy being accommodative, we now have a window of opportunity to take these measures. I hope the insights at this conference can move this agenda forward. 1 This holds true for both the countries that joined the euro area early on (by 2001) and the former communist  countries that joined later.