Indeed, as part of the Eurosystem, as a participant in the Single Supervisory Mechanism and given its responsibility for the proper functioning and stability of the financial system, the Banco de España regularly collects a wealth of financial and supervisory information from credit institutions, which is key to performing all our duties. This information is also necessary for strengthening the performance of other functions of the Banco de España, such as the conduct of monetary policy, the oversight of the stability of the financial system and the compilation of statistics. We are also responsible for designing financial reporting as efficiently as possible and, in this endeavour, both the Banco de España and the European authorities have some substantial challenges ahead. I shall refer to these later. Some of the key statistics produced by the Banco de España are present in the Spanish National Statistical Plan (the PEN, as we refer to it). They include some macroeconomic statistics, such as the balance of payments and the financial accounts, which complement and have to be consistent with those compiled by INE. In this regard, I think we can be proud of the long-standing tradition of close and candid cooperation between our two institutions. Joint discussion continuously enriches our professionals, and their efforts to ensure the consistency and complementarity of the results are a guarantee of the quality of the statistical system.
I really hope that the conference provides an excellent frame for communication and exchange of ideas. It is important that the collaboration in investment finance leads to the implementation of effective investment policies to ensure the engagement of both the public and the private sectors for economic growth. As a part of the European Union, Romania needs to align and redefine the economy, to deepen the integration and to enhance the convergence with the Euro Area countries in the light of the Euro adoption objective. This statutory obligation as an EU member is assumed in the accession treaty; however the process requires significant efforts to prepare, on economical, political, social and cultural levels. This process requires making good use of all instruments and the financial investments make no exception. We still need to develop the analysis capacity, the European investments absorption and the acceleration of funds distribution in the Romanian economy. The cooperation and the technical assistance for co-financing of investment projects under the Multiannual Financial Frameworks 2014–2020 and the next one, as well as the active role played by the European Investment Bank in the approval of structural funds under the Juncker plan in Romania are key priorities to ensure the enablement of economic growth potential in action towards sustainable economic development.