Thank you, Paschal. Good evening, everyone.

Let me begin by touching on our economic outlook, as usual.

The European Commission will provide a detailed update on the economic outlook when I present our Autumn Economic Forecast next Monday.

What I can say already is that the euro area economy is performing stronger in 2025 than previously expected and continues to generate growth.

However, we face considerable headwinds and cannot be complacent.

This brings me to the next point on the agenda: the euro areas competitiveness challenges in the context of broader geopolitical developments.

Here, I debriefed todays meeting on our discussions with international partners at the IMF Annual Meetings which took place last month in Washington.

This years meetings took place in a context of high uncertainty due to geopolitical and trade tensions.

Discussions highlighted the attention being placed on global macroeconomic imbalances, including among major economies such as China, the US, and the EU.

For our part, structural weaknesses present in the European economy have persisted in recent years.

In light of growing fragmentation, and the ongoing impact of trade tensions on our economies, we agreed on the importance of further strengthening and diversifying our trade ties.

This will continue to promote our resilience and stability.

This also underscores the importance and urgency of advancing with our competitiveness agenda to unlock growth and secure our long-term prosperity.

Here, the Competitiveness Compass guides our work.

While we have already made good progress on implementing the Compass, we must now double down on our efforts to implement it in full.

This includes, notably:

  • making the most of our greatest economic asset, the EU Single market,
  • moving forward with the Savings and Investment Union to finance productive investments, and
  • progressing with our simplification agenda to ease regulatory burdens on citizens and businesses.

Global geopolitical developments also underline the need to continue strengthening the international role of the euro and progressing another topic on todays agenda: the digital euro.

The importance the digital euro was also highlighted by EU leaders at the October Euro Summit.

Here, I would like to acknowledge the work of the Danish Presidency for its intensive efforts to progress this file in recent months.

We welcome their ambition to reach a general approach by the end of this year.

Finally, a word on fiscal policy coordination.

We held a discussion on how the Eurogroup could play a role within the parameters of the economic governance framework and in respect of the institutional competences of the European Commission and of the Council.

The Eurogroup could, for example, focus on substantive discussions, fostering peer pressure and mutual support through the exchange of best practices.

From the Commissions side, we stand ready to provide support and inputs to support Ministers in this work, where needed.

Finally, we heard insightful presentations from the chairs of the single supervisory mechanism and  the single resolution board.

All in all, our banking sector is resilient and solid from a prudential perspective.

As part of our broader drive to enhance Europes competitiveness, the Commission will assess what needs to be done to advance the Single Market in banking.

I will work closely with all stakeholders to achieve this objective.

Thank you.