Let me also express my compliments to each and every member of our current staff, for so faithfully carrying out the duties entrusted to you. Our economy exhibited growth in the mid-2 percent range last year, below our potential growth rate, and it has not shown any clearly marked recovery this year either.
Europe has comprehensively responded to this lesson from the financial crisis and has created the appropriate legal and institutional preconditions, which must now be made a reality by all EU Member States. As our experience shows, it is not enough to gear regulation and supervision exclusively to the stability of individual financial institutions.