The European Commission's proposal (CRR3/CRD6) to finalise the implementation of these rules is a decisive and very balanced step forward. This balance must be preserved in the discussions that are underway in the Council and Parliament, and which will continue under the Czech Presidency. In this respect, I would like to mention two major challenges that you are familiar with. First, we continue to call for the implementation of an output floor at the highest level of consolidation within the European Union, which is the only level consistent with the spirit of the Banking Union, which is now almost complete. Second, we need targeted adjustments on critical and strategic exposures for the financing of the EU economy, but they must remain temporary in order to correspond to the spirit of the agreements. 3  In the current context, in addition to completing micro-prudential regulation, it is also desirable to maintain a comprehensive and consistent macro-prudential safety net to enable banks to absorb new shocks while continuing to provide essential services to the real economy. This takes several forms, ranging from countercyclical capital buffers, which the French macroprudential authority reset at 0.5% with a 12-month implementation deadline at its March meeting, to borrower-based measures.
After September, on the basis of its current assessment, the Governing Council expects that a gradual but sustained series of additional interest rate rises will be appropriate. Lastly, the reduction in the size of the Eurosystem's balance sheet will only be achieved at a later stage, probably when the need not only for normalisation but also for a tightening of monetary policy becomes apparent. As part of this gradual normalisation process, the ECB Governing Council has made it clear that it will not rule out any options, including acting against fragmentation within the euro area, and will maintain a gradual and flexible approach to conducting monetary policy. 2. Macro financial risks and outlook In this context marked by the rise in external shocks, strong uncertainty about the extent of their impact and their duration, and a change in the interest rate environment with the prospect of very low or even negative rates over a long period coming to an end, we can collectively rejoice in the fact that for more than two years the banking sector has been resilient; it has contributed to 2  mitigating shocks and not to amplifying them. This shock absorption capacity is an asset that must be maintained and even strengthened. This can be done through two channels: supervision and regulation. The macroeconomic risks and outlook in particular confirm the need to keep the monitoring of banks' credit and market risks high on the supervisory agenda of the ACPR and the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM).