It was believed that market discipline would install responsible behavior in the fiscal and competitive position of countries. The land grabbing attitude of the European Commission pretending to be the economic and fiscal authority in the event of more integration indirectly strengthened the case for the intergovernmental approach and the socalled own responsibility of each individual country in this respect.
I would also welcome participants from relevant government agencies and financial institutions to attend this informative seminar. One year ago, the financial tsunami, triggered by the subprime fallout, started to take its toll on global financial markets in a scale which is unprecedented since 1930.