Among such a wide range of academic contributions, let me refer in particular to papers presented at a conference organised by the ECB in June 2005, which provide evidence of the changes brought about by the euro with respect to trade integration, structural reforms, financial integration, business cycle synchronisation and inflation differentials.
2 I will not dwell on those topics today, but will certainly refer to the literature in addressing the specific issue of convergence towards the euro area. As I just mentioned, the criteria for adopting the euro refer to nominal variables – the inflation rate, the long-term interest rate and the exchange rate – and to the budget deficit and debt ratios.