First Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Hungary and now most recently Poland, have implemented fundamental pension reforms similar to the Swedish reform with a partly funded system. In addition, Estonia has had a very consistent free trade policy, which has benefited the country during the transition to a market economy. The country has been so free trade friendly that it is now unfortunately forced to raise the customs duties on certain goods against some countries in preparation for EU membership. It is in areas such as this that the EU can learn something from the candidate countries (and countries like Ireland) rather than the other way round. The new candidate countries can enrich the EU in this way and many others, not merely in a pecuniary sense, but also institutionally and in a cultural and humane sense. The enlargement eastwards will send new stimuli to the EU, not merely for trade and economic integration, but also with regard to the EU's institutions and the current member countries, just as the candidate countries have received stimuli from the EU during the process. This means not only that a reunited Europe can become richer, but also that the EU can, hopefully, become even more successful and function even better.
Digitalisation is an ambivalent process in that it also offers banks tools to control these risks. For example, artificial intelligence is a valuable tool in the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing, as it can be used to analyse large volumes of data quickly in order to spot unusual transactions more swiftly. 1.2 Vulnerabilities in relation to the transition to a sustainable economy [SLIDE 3]  The other structural challenge, namely the green transition, exposes banks to a number of vulnerabilities. The exposure of banks to climate-related risks is now well established, in part thanks to work by the Network of Central Banks and Supervisors for Greening the Financial System, or NGFS. In particular, banks may be exposed to physical risks and transition risks. Physical risks stem from the rise of extreme weather events such as droughts, flooding and storms. These events can weaken the businesses and households to which banks are exposed, potentially generating losses. Transition risks are related to the measures that are taken by public authorities or the private sector to support the move to a low-carbon production model, which oblige economic participants to restructure their activities and cause some assets to become impaired. Coal mines, for instance, are destined to become stranded assets. Since transition risks materialise over a longer time horizon and are less visible, they are challenging to identify and model. In addition to climate risk, the financial system is also affected by the risks linked to ecosystem disruption, such as biodiversity loss.