This leads me to another point mentioned in the draft resolution, namely the importance for a central bank to take account of asset prices when assessing risks to price stability, while not introducing moral hazard in financial markets through inappropriate reactions to excessive asset price developments. The ECB fully shares this view. It closely monitors asset price developments as indicators for monetary policy but it does not target them or react to them mechanically. As regards the proposed endorsement of macroeconomic projections by the Governing Council of the ECB, allow me to clarify once again the role of those projections in the process of monetary policymaking at the ECB. These projections play an important role for us, but they have by no means an all-encompassing role. They are an important technical input by ECB and national central bank staff in summarising and assessing the implications of a large body of information for future inflation in a consistent way. However, we are also fully aware of the difficulties of making projections. In particular, we recognise that it is impossible to summarise all the relevant information for assessing the maintenance of price stability in one single projection. Given the difficulties of forecasting over the longer term and the uncertainty regarding the appropriate economic model, we do not advocate the use of a single projection to analyse the risks to price stability.
Economic policy arena: fiscal policy and the employment markets The success of Monetary Union and the future of Europe will also depend on fiscal and structural policies in the Member States significantly improving the structural conditions for further economic development and, in particular, employment developments. As is evident from the waning  BIS Review 99/1999  4  consolidation efforts following the beginning of Monetary Union and the continuing high level of unemployment, in general, the initial experiences in this area were rather disappointing. Most Member States are currently still very far from meeting the medium-term requirement for a balanced budget laid down in the Stability and Growth Pact. The measures currently planned are, for the most part, insufficient to achieve a sustained reduction in the long-term structural deficits. This problem is becoming particularly obvious given the current low interest rates in the euro area, which have, in themselves, tended to increase the scope for fiscal consolidation. In view of the relatively positive economic outlook for the euro area, fiscal policy should be taking advantage of this opportunity to make cuts in expenditure in order to achieve a more sound fiscal policy in the medium term. The high level of unemployment in Europe is primarily of a structural nature, which is evident when a comparison is made with the United States.