*  *  *  Ladies and gentlemen, It is a great pleasure to be here today. The crisis has made it clear that a highly interconnected and integrated area such as the euro area, and a genuine Economic and Monetary Union needed a stronger institutional framework.
An important element to strengthen the financial institutional framework is the creation of the Banking Union with the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) representing its first pillar. During my intervention today I will touch upon the different elements of the Banking Union and the underlying rationale for its establishment.