The failure to meet the Lisbon targets has been partly due to the weaker global economic environment during the first half of the decade but also partly due to a lack of urgency among Member States in implementing the necessary reforms to improve the functioning of markets. In particular, this requires the discipline of competition to spur efficiency and innovation.
As it happens, this has been an interesting time to make that shift, because we have been making big changes to our monetary policy implementation framework.1 I would therefore like to centre this speech on monetary policy implementation. Later we can discuss the outlook for the economy, and the challenges facing monetary policy.