Employment instability has multiple adverse economic effects. Specifically, it negatively affects the accumulation of human capital by workers and can thus have very persistent effects on their working lives. In particular, a recent Banco de España paper finds that the employment stability afforded by a permanent contract in Spain can lead to cumulative wage differences of up to 16 pp compared to a temporary contract, over 15 working years. 14  Such instability also entails greater uncertainty about future income. And this greater uncertainty has a direct bearing not only on spending decisions, but also on emotional wellbeing, the formation of new households and the birth rate. In this setting, one of the main objectives of the labour market reform enacted in 2022 is to combat the high proportion of temporary employment. Since the approval of this legislation, permanent hiring has quickened significantly and temporary hires have slowed. Thus, according to social security registrations for April, the year-on-year growth in permanent employment stood at 12.9%, compared with a 9% fall in the number of workers with temporary contracts. Permanent contracts increased most among permanent seasonal workers (84.9%) and permanent part-time workers (17.1%). It is, however, still too early to assess the impact of the labour market reform, and any such evaluation will have to consider multiple issues. Notable among them is the impact on employment because, in principle, the reduction in temporary contracts might stem from both temporary employment being replaced by permanent employment and from the destruction of temporary jobs.
And on the subject of history, I would like to make some observations. Europe's single currency has ancient roots: apart from the single currency of the Roman Empire, two thousand years ago, I could mention George of Podebrady, a king of Bohemia in the 15th century, who called for a common currency for Europe, or Victor Hugo's call for a single market with a single currency in Europe in the 19th century. By implementing the Economic and Monetary Union enshrined in the Werner report 38 years ago, we have also achieved a much older plan, an ancient vision of a unified continent, including monetary union. This historic vision has always been closely associated with the search for prosperity and the preservation of peace. Voltaire's remark: “En effet l’histoire n’est que le tableau des crimes et des malheurs” – “Indeed, history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes” – from the perspective of the mid-twentieth century could not have been more apt . It is no surprise that it was at that point in time that Europeans decided to accelerate the march towards European unity. The single currency is the most advanced feature of European unity and in many respects its emblem. We owe it to the lucidity of the founding fathers and to the determination of a series of visionary leaders. We saw these founding fathers a moment ago on the screen. To them we owe an immense debt of gratitude.