Jean-Claude Trichet: First of all, we are on the record as having always asked for full and decisive implementation of the governance measures that already exist. We combated very fiercely the position of the heads of government of the three major countries in the euro area when they wanted to weaken formidably the stability and growth pact, back in 2004 and 2005. It was a very, very fierce battle. They wanted to really unravel the pact. What I would sum up as our position today is very simple. We call for “a quantum leap” in the reinforcement of fiscal surveillance, with, in particular, what I would call the reversal of the  2  BIS Review 115/2010  burden of the proof. We have called for the “quasi-automaticity” of procedures and sanctions. We have called for a reinforced independent way of assessing the fiscal situation and we have also called for a quantum leap as regard the surveillance of competitiveness and imbalances in euro area member countries. And, finally, we have called for decisive measures to enhance the quality of statistics. As regards the methodology, we consider that a change of the treaty would be appropriate, but we accept that this would involve a long or very long procedure at the level of 27 EU countries. That’s why we have called for the maximum use of secondary legislation as a first step, to exploit all the possibilities that secondary legislation can offer to go in the direction of the necessary goals. That’s the idea.
Birgir Ísleifur Gunnarsson: Current trends and prospects of the Icelandic economy in a global setting Address by Mr Birgir Ísleifur Gunnarsson, Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Central Bank of Iceland, at the “Wirtschaftstag Island”, Berlin, 30 April 2003 *  *  *  Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen. It has been said that Iceland is an extreme case of a small open economy. It has a population of just under 300,000, a GDP of around 10 billion USD and a stock market capitalization that is roughly one-tenth the market value of a moderate sized U.S. company. The small size, along with fluctuations in fish stocks and the terms of trade, make Iceland in many ways more vulnerable to external changes than larger countries. But by exploiting its abundant natural resources and a highly educated labour force, Iceland has been able to utilise its comparative advantage in the international division of labour, making its GDP per capita among the very highest in the world. Over the past two decades, significant structural reforms have taken place in the Icelandic economy and financial markets. The objective of these reforms has been to achieve a market-based framework open to external influences. This process was accelerated by the need to better align the Icelandic economy with those of its European partners when Iceland became one of the founding members of the European Economic Area (EEA) in 1994 and thereby integrated into the internal market of the EU.