 Hi everyone, good afternoon and welcome to the Generation Year Students' Event final award ceremony. I am speaking to you live from the European Central Bank main building in Frankfurt and I am so looking forward to all the activities that we have planned for today and I want to know if you are as well. I want to know how are you all feeling about everything that will happen this afternoon, including meeting President Lagarde later today. So, while we are all settling in and joining the Zoom meeting, why don't you follow the instructions that you will see on the screen. You will shortly see a QR code that you should be able to scan and also a code number that you can type in using your smartphone or your tablet, whatever you prefer. And you will join a Mentimeter event. Well, you will see three different gifts and I want you to select the one that best represents how you are feeling today. Let's see what's the vibe in the room today, but I hope all of you are as excited as I am. I guess at least I find it quite a unique opportunity to be in such a big room full of so many students from different countries and also different cultures. And I see the first results coming in and it's great to see that most of you are very positive about this, feeling great, excited. So, I see we are at quite a good starting point. In that case, I think I'll just get it started and move on with it. And I would like to, of course, very warmly welcome all of you, the National Central Banks representatives joining us, the teachers and most importantly, all the students who are the true protagonists of this session. My name is Georgina Riga Sanchez at work. I work at the communications department here at the European Central Bank, and I am very happy to be moderating this session and also the awards ceremony later with you and President Lagarde. But before we get there, I would like to give the floor now to Wolfgang Poisel, the director general of the communications department here at the ECB. Hi, Wolfgang. Good afternoon. And thank you so much for joining us. Dear students and teachers, on behalf of the European Central Bank, it is my pleasure to welcome you virtually. This year's Generation Euro Student Award, live from the European Central Bank in Frankfurt. My name is Wolfgang Poisel and I'm in charge of communications here at the ECB. Let me extend my warmest congratulations to you for succeeding in the final round of your national competition. Your being here today is the proof of the great work and dedication that all of you have poured into this competition over the past months. Even in these difficult circumstances due to the pandemic, you succeeded in achieving this together and this applies to the students, but also, of course, to the teachers who are here. We call you the Generation Euro in this competition because most of you will have grown up knowing only the Euro as your currency. But the Europe that we have today is a great achievement that goes way beyond the Euro and economics. We should not take that for granted. Especially in times of the pandemic, it can sometimes be challenging to work together to find shared solutions and to help each other while also respecting our cultural differences. Despite these challenges, this forces us to set aside limiting beliefs and focus on the fundamental things that we all share. It shows us that Europe is stronger, safer and can achieve more when we work together towards shared vision, even in times when communication is mainly online. That we can all come together today from so many different locations within Europe is really great. Let me add a little personal note with regards to the Generation Euro. I'm a father of two daughters. They are 18 and 20 years old. My wife is French, so my daughters are from Germany. My older daughter was born almost exactly at the same time when the Euro coins and bills were introduced, my younger daughter 20 months later. For them, European currencies are something they only know from the history books or from the little tin box that we had at our house. When my girls were small, I had this tin box in which I kept some coins of German marks, of French francs, of Spanish pesetas and some other coins. They played with these coins, and when I told them that you had to change money, each time when you went from Germany to Belgium or to France, they looked at me in disbelief. They have never known another world than the one where you pay in Euro, whether you are in Rome, in Vienna, in Athens or in Helsinki. So they're also part of the Generation Euro. And perhaps in a couple of years, they will also participate in this beautiful Generation Euro student award that we are all here for today. And now, I wish you a nice afternoon, a lot of fun at the Meet and Connect event. I hope you will get to know each other, make friends and even learn a little bit more about our work here at the ECB. Thank you and enjoy your time here with us. Thank you very much, Wolfgang. I couldn't agree more with you. And indeed, I hope that this is a fun event for all of us. But I feel like by now we have spoken too much and it's your turn now. We want to hear from you. And I know that each of the teams has prepared a short presentation and let us know a little bit more about all your hometowns. So what we will do now is I will call out the speaker for each team. And whenever I do that, you can turn on your camera and unmute your microphone so that we can hear your presentation. But to make sure that we have time for everything, let's keep this short and ideally no longer than one minute per team. So without further ado, let's get started with the first team on our list, which is the team Chateau Chapeau from Germany. Please turn your cameras on so that we can see all your faces. And I will ask Paula to unmute yourself and let us know a little bit more about your hometown. So I'd like to introduce you by teammate Mia, who will present this presentation. Thank you. So I'm going to tell you a bit about our hometown. We go to boarding school, which is located in the Rheingau, which is near Frankfurt and is famous for its vineyards and so on, which you can see in the middle picture as a top tourist attraction. A typical local food for Frankfurt is Grissos as we pronounce it, which is called green sauce, which is typically eaten with eggs and potatoes. And the famous person we chose is Goethe, which most of you hopefully know, who was a famous poet and so on and who was born in Frankfurt and raised in Frankfurt. Thank you so much. This was very nice. And I will ask now to turn on the cameras of our second team members who are the Irish team, Bentotene. Where are you? Let us see you. Please turn your cameras on. And I am going to ask Garrett to unmute himself so that we can also hear his presentation. Hello all. This is the Irish team, Team Bentente. As you can see here on the left is our local food, the Irish stew with some modern and potatoes. And then our tourist attraction here is the Johns Causeway, which is supposedly built by Irish giants. However, it's just cracked lava cooling. And then the third person, our famous person, is a person from our school, Belvedere College, who is an ex-pupil and a former president or t-shirt of our country, and Garrett Fitzgerald. Thank you very much. Thanks to you. That was super nice. And it's also very nice to see you all together on camera. Moving on to our next team. It's Mr. Euro from Spain. Please let us see you. Turn your cameras on as well. And let's hear Beatriz explain a little bit more about their hometown. Yeah. So good afternoon. We are team Mr. Euro from Spain. And we are all very passionate about economics. And most of us are going to take economy related degrees next year in different universities. And we are from Castellón, which is a city located on the east coast of the country. And we have both like the sea, but also like Rocky Mountains and green areas. Many members of our community have raised, have raised to fame. And one of them is Roberto Bautista, which is a world-class tennis player. Here in our zone, we are like the home to the probably most famous Spanish dish, which is paella. And we cook paella in like the traditional way with a variety of different recipes that we have passed on for generations. Oh, yeah. Nice to be here. Thank you so much, Beatriz. You truly live in a very, very nice city. Thanks a lot for this. But let's now welcome our next team. The team Elrofil from France. Please turn your cameras on so that we can see you and Lea. Go ahead whenever you are ready. Thank you. Thank you. So yes, we are the winning team from France. And we are a group of three economics enthusiasts. We are in our last year in of the secondary school and our school is in Annemarie, the biggest town of the Irish Department and quite a small town. So as you can see on the templates, our full specialty is the chestnut spring. So used as a spread and it's exquisite with pre-preps. Also, our major tourist attraction is the Chauvet Cate. So consider one of the most significant first circle art sites, part of the UNESCO World Heritage. And finally, there's not so much famous people from our dash, but you might have heard of the Mongolia brothers who invented the Mongolia style hot hair balloons. And in the 18th century. So yeah, that's it. Thank you. Thanks a lot, Lea. Thanks. Thanks to all of you. This is actually very nice because I feel like we are all learning many different things from, from all the country. So this is truly interesting. And now let's see what our Italians friends have to tell us. Let's welcome the Rossetti project team. Please turn your cameras on as well so that we can see you clearly. And Luca, please go ahead and present us a little bit about your hometown. Good afternoon, everybody. I'm Luca from the Chauvet Cate. We are so excited to be here today. Our city, some of the Toronto Rises on the shores of the Adriatic Sea, and it is one of the best promenades in all Italy. Our main tourist attraction is our seashore, what we call the Riviera delle Palme. And as you can see in the photo, it is full of home trees. There's also a cycle path. And some of it includes over 300 establishments for visitors and the tourists from all over the world. Our typical food are olive alla scolana. So stuffed olives, little meatballs of fresh and cured meats wrapped in the flesh of green olives before being coated with bread crumbs and then fried. And they are our original most renowned finger food and street food. And as a famous person, we put in the presentation, Giovanna Levi, which is one of the greatest composers, composers in the current international panorama. It is such a pleasure to be here. And we are looking forward to hearing from all of you. Thank you. Thanks a lot, Luca. The pleasure is all ours. That was super nice to see your city as well. And now I am going to give the floor to the European steam from Luxembourg. Please turn your cameras on as well. And this time I will give the floor to Margo. Margo, please unmute yourself and head whenever you're ready. Hello. So we are the team, a Europe's from Luxembourg. So our typical food here in Luxembourg is called the and it's actually a dish of smoke, poor color and broad beans with some potatoes, which is one of the most widely recognized national dishes of Luxembourg. So then the extra monument is called the. And it's actually a monument of remembrance. And the centerpiece is about 21 meters tall. So it's dedicated to the thousands of Luxemburgers who volunteered for service in the armed forces of the Allied powers during both world wars and the Korean war. And then finally our, our special personality is the Grand Duke. So since the 7th of October, 2000 the Grand Duke Henry has been the head of state. So the symbol of its unity and guarantees national independence. And currently here in Luxembourg it is only, so Luxembourg is the only Grand Duchy in the world with the Grand Duke as its head of state. Thank you for listening and we are very excited to be here. Thanks a lot for this insightful presentation. Again, I find it really nice when I see all the team together joining. It's great. And moving on, let's see what our next team has to tell us this time. I am going to welcome the team DTM to 500 from Austria. Let us see you as well turn your cameras on and Marcus please go ahead with your presentation. Hello, we are DTM 2500 from Austria. We have three students who are currently doing their A levels in Vienna. The typical food from Vienna is the Vienna Schnitzel. Austria has a lot of flakes and also the art which is really beautiful. And the most famous person from Austria is Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is probably the most famous bodybuilder of the world. It's a pleasure to be here. Thanks a lot Marcus thanks a lot to all the team for for the nice presentation. And I am now going to give the floor to our Portuguese friends. The team at Terceira Edebes, please turn your cameras on as well. And Manuel, go ahead. We are looking forward to hearing from you. So good afternoon. We are the team at Terceira Edebes or third time the charm from Portugal, more specifically from San João da Madeira, which is a town in Europe. As our typical food, we put the codfish that we serve in a huge variety of ways here. As our tourist attraction, we put Tours de Clérif in Oport. And then we chose as our famous person from the region, Sara Sampaio, who is a world famous model from the north of Portugal. Thank you for listening and for the opportunity to be here. Thank you. That presentation was also very nice. And now I'm going to call out the team absolutely Nietzsche from Slovenia. You are up next. Let us see you as well. And this time, Luca is going to give us the presentation. Okay, so hello, we are team absolute Nietzsche from Slovenia. Absolute Nietzsche roughly translates to absolute zeros. And this is because we absolutely agree with the decision to keep the interest rates near zero. And then on the left side, we can see Pothica, which is our national dish in the middle picture we can see Lent, which is the oldest part of our beautiful city Maribor. And then on the right side, we can see Filiplica is this famous snowboarder Slovenia snowboarder who has won several snowboarding competitions or championships. Thank you, Luca. Thank you, Luca. It's great to have so many young enthusiastic economists in the room. I think this is very promising. And now moving on, I'll welcome the Samkove Dietke team from Slovakia. Welcome as well. It's your turn, Timotech, please unmute yourself and go ahead. Hello, first we would like to thank you for this amazing opportunity. We are very glad to be here. We are the Slovak national team called Samkove Dietke. We represent bilingual grammar school in Sučani. Firstly, before I start the presentation, I would like to thank you, our mentor Sam and our teacher, Mr Leszek, who are also with us today. And also, I would like to say hello to all other winning teams and congratulate them on winning the competition. So, I bought our country. We are a small country in the middle of Slovakia. What you can see are brains of a halushki. I can't really translate it into English, but it's a really delicious food and you should all try it. The Haitat Trust is like the most amazing place in the world. Definitely, we invite you all here to visit it. We have our star Petra Volohova, who will win the world skiing competition this year. There's a national star this year, so yeah, that's it basically. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thanks a lot to all of you and I couldn't agree more with you. We not only want to welcome all the teachers that are joining us here today, but also a big thank you for supporting all the teams and leading you to the win. So, so that's great. And last, but not least, I am going to call now our last team today, the Baltic Bankers from Finland. Welcome as well. Please turn your cameras on so that we can see you all and Noel, I'll give the floor to you. Hello, thank you. Well, yes, we're the Baltic Bankers from Finland. We're actually from a small island between Finland and Sweden, known as island islands, an autonomous Swedish speaking region. Our first picture of the food is Baltic herring, also known as the Silver of the Sea here in Ireland, and has been a great commodity for us for many years, for many hundreds of years. In the middle we see our top tourist attraction, the Husta, the ship Pommen. It's the only four-mastered bark preserved in its pristine condition in the world. And to the right we see our famous person Adelina Engmann, who has graduated from our school and played in both top leagues in England and France. And we thank you all for attending to these events and wish you all a good day. Thanks a lot Noel, that was really nice. I also want to thank you all for these very interesting presentations. I don't know about you, but I for sure learned many things that I didn't know before, and I saw pictures of super good looking and tasty food that I wish I could try as well. Thanks a lot, really thanks a lot. And before we continue with our next activity, I would actually like to take the opportunity to thank all the teams for the questions that you sent us for President Lagarde. We received lots of them and they were truly very diverse and interesting. But unfortunately, since our time with the president is going to be quite limited and we will not have time to answer them all, we would like to ask you to vote for the ones that you find the most interesting. So if you take once more your smartphone or your tablet or even your laptop and you go back to the Mentimeter session, you will be able to see their list with all the questions that we received. Don't worry if it looks like a lot, we are going to give you five minutes so that you can carefully go through them. And once you have decided on your top four favorite questions, let us know which ones they are by pressing on the thumbs up icon next to each question. Remember that you can do that only up to four times, so each of you has four votes. And then, depending on the results, we will shortlist your favorite questions and these will be the ones that we will ask to President Lagarde later today during the award ceremony. Of course, if any of you has any further questions or experience any technical events, you can let us know via the chat function on the Zoom meeting and the colleagues here will be here to support you. In that case, I'll see you back in five minutes. Thanks a lot for participating. The five minutes are over and I see you got right into it. I can see here on my tablet how the scores are going and it's great to see that we have a top eight of questions that are very diverse on many current affairs topics. So I am sure we will have a very lively and interesting discussion with President Lagarde. I see here questions on her leadership, crypto assets, also about the coronavirus pandemic and climate change. So I think she will be very happy to see how interested you are in herself and also the job that we do here at the European Central Bank. So thanks a lot for that. The boat is now closed, so I will ask you please not to boat anymore. We will leave the count as it is and prepare these questions to be answered during the next session of the event. Therefore, I would like to ask all the teams who proposed the questions that made it to the top of the list, specifically the eight first questions. I'm going to ask you and your speakers to prepare yourselves because during the session with the president, I will call out your names so that you can post your questions directly to the president. Don't worry, I will explain already later that you can turn on your cameras and also your microphones to make sure that the president can see you and hear you properly and she will gladly answer your question. As mentioned before, whenever you have any questions, please just let us know via the chat function and all the colleagues who are here with me will be gladly to support you. Before we move on to the special activity that we have prepared for today, which we hope you enjoy as much as we did preparing it. Let's have a 10 minutes break so that you can all maybe grab a drink, get some fresh air and we need to see you afterwards being at the top of your game because you will need to be really focused for our next exercise. Thank you so much and I see you in 10 minutes. I hope that you had a nice break and that you use the time to prepare for yourself because I have to tell you something, there's going to be a test, but I promise you it's going to be a fun test. So why don't you let me know if you are all here back from the break by sending me some smileys on the chat box from the zoom window so that I can see if you are already back with us. Just to make sure that when we start the activity, you are all here, okay, I'm starting to see several smiley faces, which is great. Okay, so I'll take this as we can proceed and get started with the next activity we have planned for you. The thing is, we find it so unique having all of you together in the same room coming from different countries, different backgrounds, but sharing the same passion about Europe and as you said during your presentations about the Euro as well. So this is why we have prepared a European pop quiz. We are going to test your knowledge on Europe through this quiz that you will be able to access very easily by following once again the instructions that you see on your screen. All you need to do is go back to the Mentimeter session, the same one you used before for the Q&A, but this time you will see that you will be asked to type in your name. I really encourage you to type in your name because if you forget to do that, Mentimeter might give you very strange nicknames that you definitely don't want. And I can see that many of you already did that. So what we are going to do now is start the quiz. It's 13 questions and let's see who is it going to be our expert in the room. So question number one. Alfred Novel, the founder of the Nobel Prize was famous for the invention of you have 14 seconds to answer. Just press on the answer that you think it's the correct one. And let's see how many of you answer it correctly. Times up. Yes, well done. The right answer was Dynamite. I see that most of you knew that, but maybe what you didn't know before is the alternative that Novel was considering, which was Novel Safety Powder. And I have to say I'm glad he chose Dynamite as I find it much more easier to remember. So good. Great to know that the first question was quite a success. And let's move on to the next one. Let's see if most of you still know this one. Which animal was never native in Europe? Was it the Wolverine, the bison, the groundhog, or the brown bear? I see 14 people already replied up to 23 now. Let's see if you got this one right. I'm afraid this one was not as easy as the first one. The right answer is the groundhog. And you know what? Preparing this quiz, I actually learned something that I found quite interesting, which is that groundhogs, when they hibernate into winter, they sleep. It's so deep that their heart beats only five times in one minute. You see, first thing we learned today. Let's move on to the third question. And let's see how this one goes. So which of this is the flag of Greece? Is it option one, two, three? Okay, so far clear. You clearly think it's option three. Let's see if you got it right. Looks like maybe we still have some participants thinking about it. Let's see if we can see the results soon. Looks like some of you are still waiting to answer. Let's give it a few more seconds. But so far it looks like all of you have a clear idea of which the right answer is. I'm not sure if we have any Greeks in the room who maybe, but you clearly seem to know the answer. And yes, you are right. I'm going to say the right answer is option three. Indeed, you were all right. The 42 players who answered this correctly. Let's see if we can move on to the next question. Maybe this one is a bit more difficult. Which country has won the most Eurovision titles? Is it Ireland, the United Kingdom, Luxembourg or Sweden? Okay, maybe it was not so difficult. I see 37 people already replied very quickly. Let's see who do you think time is up. Okay, we have quite balanced answers. But yes, the right answer is Ireland. Ireland has won the Eurovision contest seven times. So they have the record, but they also have another record, which is that the Irish are the first country to win this contest three times in a row. That's quite an achievement. Let's move on to the next question. Which of the cities is not a host of the Euro 2021 football championship? So all the football enthusiasts in the room, now it's your time to shine. Let's see if you know the right answer to this question. Seven seconds left. And it's the final countdown now. Let's see 40, 41 people replied. And I don't see many football enthusiasts with us here today, because the right answer was Porto. The Portuguese city will be hosting the European football championship next. All right, before we continue, let's have a look at how the score is going. Let's see who's leading the game so far. Okay, Brandon Broken is on top, followed by Pedro and Tinky. But, oh no, there's been a change. It's actually Krok and Paul leading the score. But let me tell you, don't get too confident because things can change. There's still plenty of questions ahead. So let's see if you can keep up. Let's move on now to our next question. Have a look at this landmark. Look at it carefully, and now you need to guess to which country does it belong. You will see all the possible answers loading now. Just keep the picture in mind. It's the European country. Okay, we have 25 up to 30 people already responded. Let's see if you got this one right. And moving on to the final countdown before we see the answer. Time is up. And yes, you did get this one right. Well done. Looks like this one was too easy. Let's see if the next one is maybe a bit more challenging for you. Question number six, which country has the rooster as its symbol? I am 100% sure that some of you will for sure know the right one to this. Let's see, number of respondents is going up pretty fast. So I guess you have a clear idea in mind. Final countdown. And yes, very clearly, most of you knew this answer, right? Indeed, the rooster Le Coq Galois in French is the unofficial symbol of the French nation. And you might be thinking as well of the symbol of the Marianne, which is the official one representing the French nation and the values of the Republic. Let's move on to our next question. See what that one is about. We already made it halfway. What is Peruchika in Bosnia? Is it a rainforest, a waterfall, a medieval city or a football stadium? You have 10 seconds, nine to think about it. And time is up. Let's see. Most of you thought it was a medieval city, but it's actually a rainforest. It's actually one of the very last virgin forests in Europe that have been pretty much untouched by human activity. So I guess it must definitely be a place worth visiting. Let's move on to our next question. Number eight, which European country has the highest per person beer consumption? This one might surprise many of you. The answer definitely surprised me a lot. So let's see. I'm excited to see what you think about this one. You have eight seconds left to answer. And two, one, go. Let's see. Time's up. Oh, you were actually quite good. I admit I also thought it was the Germans, but no, it's actually Czech Republic. The Czechs have a highest beer consumption with 160 liters per year and per person. This actually means a daily consumption of one beer per each women, men and child of the country. So something else we learned today. Moving on. Question nine, after this one, we'll check the score again to see how you are doing and if something changed. How many member states have been part of the European Union since 1st January 2007? Okay, here again, you are answering quite fast up to 30 participants replied already. Let's see if you chose the correct answer. Oh, it was quite tight between 25 and 27, but the right answer is 27. When the European Union or what we know today as the European Union started out during the 50s, it was just six countries who founded it and were members of them. And since then we've grown up to 27 that we are today and beyond because if we can still expand further, we will see how that goes. And let's now move on by having another look at the score. Let's see who's now on the lead. If anybody caught up maybe or if we have the same winners as before. Okay, clearly changed. Mia is now on the lead followed by Krog and Paul, but it's very, very tight. So anything could happen. Stay focused, concentrate. And yeah, maybe you become the next expert in the room. Let's see. We still have a few questions left. So let's go for it. Next question, please. Number 10. At an altitude of just 75 meters, which country has the lowest high point? Is it Monaco, Malta, Denmark or Vatican City? You have eight seconds left and three, two, one. And time is up. Let's see what you thought about this one. Oh, clear tight between Denmark and the Vatican. Yes, Vatican City was the right answer. They have the Vatican Hill, which is the lowest high point at an altitude of just 75 meters in Europe. Well done. Well done for the winners and let's continue. We are about doing right now the very last questions of the quiz. So it's now or never question number 11. Name the tallest mountain in Europe. We have again four options. Is it Mount Fulika, Mount Elbrus, Mount Fulgens or Mount Echuz. You have 10 seconds left. Yes, well done. Most of you knew this one and it was actually a little bit tricky because the truth is that this mountain is located in the European continental plate, but it's actually it belongs, let's say to Russia. So well done. If we were focusing only on in the European Union, the right answer would have been the Mont Blanc. So well done there for the 30 participants that got it right. Let's see if the other questions seem also as easy for you. Number 12. What is the name of the longest river in Europe? It's between the Oda, Danube, Volga, all the Rhine. 14 seconds. I see many participants answering super fast. We are now up to more than 40 people, almost. And it's the countdown times up. And yes, very well. You got that one right indeed. The Volga is the longest river in Europe. Let's continue to with, I believe, might be our very last question. Yes, that's the final question. Which is the second largest island state in Europe in terms of area? Is it Iceland, Ireland, the United Kingdom or Mallorca? Think carefully. It's our final question before we discover our winner today. Time is up. It was close between Ireland and Iceland, and the right answer was Iceland. So well done, the 12 participants who got that one right. And let's see how the score changed now and who's going to be the winner from this little test today. Let's have a look. And it was for the team Samkovedietke. Well done. Well done team. That was quite a high score. I hope you didn't cheat and you didn't check anything on Google and did it by yourself. But that's a truly achievement. Thanks so much. Well done. But also well done for the rest of the teams as well. I hope that even if you didn't get all the questions right, it was still helpful for you to learn some new interesting things about Europe. I actually, I certainly did. So I hope you did as well. And now moving on. Thanks so much for participating here. We are getting closer and closer to the awards ceremony with President Lagarde and other members of the governing council of the participating countries that will also join us in the ceremony. All of them want to congratulate you on this achievement and encourage you to further pursue your careers and interests in Europe and also as you mentioned before in economics. So now before we get to the start of the event, which will begin at four central European time, I'm going to ask you to keep your microphones off, as well as your cameras until the event begins. As I mentioned earlier, you will have the opportunity to ask the most voted questions to President Lagarde. I will call out the names of the speakers of each team, depending on on who proposed what question. And when I do that, I will also ask you to turn your cameras on, as well as your microphones so that you can directly speak with with President Lagarde who will be answering your questions as well. During the event, all of the teams will have the opportunity to take a picture with President Lagarde. And to do that, I will also call you out so that you know when to switch on your cameras. And please remember, once your picture is taken, please take your cameras off because the next team will be will be also taking the picture so that they can turn theirs on and like this, successfully until the end. Don't worry, I will be calling it out all the time. And as mentioned, if you have any questions, just go to the chat function in the zoom meeting and colleagues will be there to support you. It was truly a pleasure playing around in this dynamic session with you, and especially hearing all your voices during the presentations. It was lovely to meet you and also your hometowns. So thanks a lot. I look forward to see you once again in the award ceremony with the president. And I know that she's truly looking forward to answer all your questions and see which topics are you interested in. So thank you so much and see you back at four. The warmest welcome to this year's GESA finalists out of Germany, the team Shuttle Shuffle Ireland team venture team. From Spain, Mr. Euro, from France, Herbal Field, from Italy, Team Rosetti Project, from Luxembourg, Team Europeace, from Austria, Team DTM 2500, from Portugal, at Tessera, at Devesh, from Slovenia, Absolutes Nicle, from Slovakia, Team Sankovedjeki, and from Finland, the Baltic Bankers. And now, without further ado, let us begin. Hello, good afternoon and welcome to this year's Generation Euro Students Award final event. My name is Georgina Garrega Sanchez and I work at the communications department of the European Central Bank. And I am very happy to be here with all of you, moderating this session today. I would like to start by welcoming president of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde. Good afternoon, President Lagarde, and thank you so much for being with us today. It's a pleasure to have you here. And I would also like to, of course, give a very warm welcome to the other representatives of the governing council from the participating countries and all the national central banks representatives also joining us today. But of course, a very warm welcome as well to all the teachers and the students that are here with us, who are the main protagonists of this session. President Lagarde, this is the first time that as president of the European Central Bank, you are joining us for this awards ceremony. How does that feel we are all looking forward to hearing from you. Well, it's, it's a great pleasure to be to be here and to actually celebrate the great work and the success of the winning teams and those who have been selected. Thank you. I'm very happy to say a few words now, you know, I'm, for once, I'm taking your instructions and following your guidance. So would you like to say a few, would you like me to say a few words of congratulations or how do you want to proceed. Of course, we are all looking forward to hearing from you. The teams are very excited. So please, the floor is all yours. Thank you so much. So it's, it's a real privilege and a great honor to be actually congratulating all those who've been presented on screen on the opening of this of this particular moment. And they are the winners of the 2021 generation Euro students award. You've achieved great things. And it's clearly a big day for you but it's a big day for us as well because you are the next generation of the economists and the financial experts and the banking experts and the citizens of Europe who will want to contribute as of now and for many years to come. Now, because nothing happens miraculously, I would also like to thank those who have trained you those who have helped you, particularly the teachers but also your family members because I'm sure that they had to put up with some strange hours of hard work that you also produced preparing for this event. Let me focus on three letters, the same letter actually courage cooperation and commitment is always helpful to me to remember initials of words particularly they're the same, because it seems to me that you've demonstrated all three. Not to demonstrate courage because I know that some of you were not necessarily economists by by training and did not study necessarily economics but still, you wanted to participate and you understood that the topics were actually of common interest. But regardless of your background you actually showed courage in presenting your ideas to the highest officials. You know, in my professional life, I've seen many top notch experts present in front of other top notch experts. And it's a very intimidating moment for any person. So, you've done that you presented before the National Central Banks presented before very high ranking officials and I think that this is a very courageous. And I hope that you will act on your part and I hope that you will learn from that process because there will be many occasions like that where you will hold your breath fill this sort of big emptiness in your stomach and and this noise inside yourself telling Don't do it don't do it and yet this very strong voice as well saying yes, you can do it, do it. And for that, you have been courageous. I have also clearly shown cooperation because things do not happen. Because one person is a hero. It's no longer the case. Actually, we all rely on teams of on other experts on people who support you all along when conducting a project and I'm sure that you've grown together as a team it shows on the photos actually I have to tell you. And working with team members having the ability sometimes to say, I thought I was right, but maybe I should qualify my views or maybe I'm wrong. And the other persons in my group are probably more right than I am this capacity to argue demonstrate compromise, and then come up with the rest of the team is also something that you will experience in the future as a big positive Finally, commitment boy I've heard a few anecdotes about how some of you had to work. And I know that some of you had to pick up tasks when members of the team actually decided to quit. Some of you were turned down the first time around and came back to it. And some, your website just crashed on you when you tried to upload your paper. I can assure you it happens to everybody it can happen to the best and the brightest. And I also heard that some of you almost got locked in the school because you were studying and working so hard. So you did not quit. You showed commitment you demonstrated that you are really worthy of this particular moment, you should be proud of yourself. You should take that moment with you all the time and remember that CCC courage cooperation and commitment will take you a long way. I can tell you that for us at the ECB. We also had to demonstrate courage cooperation and commitment. I think we had to demonstrate courage because we had to take unprecedented measures in order to stabilize financial market in order to support the economy. And this took a bit of courage it was not something that had been done as promptly and as massively as we did it and we did ask ourselves sometimes are we doing the right thing. But it took courage to actually get there do it and do as much preparation as we could in order to deliver. We also needed to cooperate and you know the European response to the crisis to this crisis the COVID-19 crisis was unprecedented. We worked together the Commission, the Parliament, European Council and the ECB we are the ECB is independent and and and it's very important but it doesn't stop us from cooperating with other European institutions and we did so. And what's even more unprecedented is the response that was given by the Europeans in the form of the next generation EU fund and the whole anti pandemic plan that was put together. It was the first time that European countries actually went out together to borrow jointly to be liable jointly and to support each other in in a manner that had never happened before by giving grants to those that were worst hit by giving very affordable loans to those that had suffered most. And that was clearly cooperation at its best some called it solidarity. It's also in the spirit of cooperation that it happened. And commitment certainly was also demonstrated. It's not over. There's still a lot of uncertainty about the course of the pandemic the spread of more infectious variants and the roll out of the vaccination campaign which is now finally coming to a good pace. The next month will be a time when Europe must stay strong and hold on its convictions and it is essential that monetary and fiscal support are not withdrawn too soon that monetary authorities and fiscal authorities work hand in hand. So as the ECB is concerned, we will stand by our commitment, our commitment to protect Europe's economy to deliver on our mandate of price stability and to make sure that all those who make Europe and European economy on a day to day basis by financing by consuming where whether they are corporates, small or large families households, they need to have the stability and the financing available in order to respond to the current situation. So, as I said, you are the future of all these challenges, you'll have to face, I'm sure, probably more complicated and complex one that will require sharp mind team spirit courage commitment and cooperation so it gives me great pleasure to celebrate your achievements and to congratulate you on what you have collectively in your respective team achieved and the perseverance that you have demonstrated in making the points that you really believed in. So, let us have, I think we have a debate now with questions, answers, and I'll be very happy to address your concerns. But again, first and foremost, congratulations to each and every one of you and to US teams. Thank you very much for your words, President Lagarde, that was truly inspiring. And indeed, as you said, we do have a room full of Europe and Euro enthusiastics, and they sent many questions for you to answer. But since unfortunately we will not have time for all of them, we asked our young participants to vote for their favorite ones until we came up with with a short list of the top most interesting questions. So if you are ready for it, I'm going to give the floor now to our first speaker, who is going to be Manuel from our Portuguese team. Manuel, please turn your camera on and your microphone as well so that President Lagarde can can see and hear you. Please go ahead. So, good afternoon, everyone. Good afternoon, President Christine Lagarde. We have prepared a question for you and our question is, how do you feel as the first ECB woman president. And if you have any advice for our young students that aim one day to be at your position. Thank you very much for being here. But thank you. Thank you so much for your question and for the clarity of these questions and I will tell you something. I give every six weeks, a press conference after the monetary policy decision that is taken by the governing council. And you would not believe the number of journalists who say, Okay, I have a question and then they move into a second question and a third question and sometimes a fourth question. And you're in the middle of all that you two questions are perfectly clear and explicit to the point and brief so excellent. How does it feel being the first woman president of the ECB. It feels sometimes like a really heavy responsibility. I think that it's largely overdue. There is no reason why a woman could not be just like a man president of the ECB president of any international institutions as I was for the IMF as well. And in the case of the ECB given that the institution is only 20 years of age. Okay, it's not as much overdue as it is for others which were much older. There's no responsibility because being the first means that I have to prove the case that they can be a second and a third and a fourth, and so on and so forth. And because of this sort of latent very intangible suspicion about the fact that maybe women are not as capable as men of achieving certain things. Then maybe I will fail. And when you're confronting that kind of situation or that kind of impression. It gives you a renewed sense of having to demonstrate that of course a woman can do it. And of course they can be another one after me and another one after her. Not that it should exclude men because I think that we all bring diversity and quality and skills to the table and it's a matter of what is the best set of skills for particular circumstances. But it's sometimes heavy on my shoulders to have been the first. Now, it's happened to me before and I'll face that particular experience yet again. But my pride is if somebody else after me is also a woman as was the case for instance at the IMF where I was succeeded by another woman. So that's how it feels sometimes and irrespective of being a woman being present of the CB at a time when the whole world is hit by COVID-19 is is of course a huge challenge and an occasion to show what you have demonstrated in your teams courage, and cooperation and commitment without which I don't think we would have been able to build the response that we did when COVID-19 started hitting the Euro area and when suddenly, you know, everything froze. The financial markets were in turmoil, countries were shutting down one after the other, lockdown measures were decided, and we were in the unknown because we had no experience of something like that. Financial crisis we have had in the past, different kinds, different format, but we had some experience, but that, you know, the shutdown as as as we saw it was something where we had to, you know, open a new chapter and write that book of response. Now what advice would I give you if you wanted to do that, that job. One, I'd say that I strongly believe that nothing happens without hard work. You don't get anywhere. Well, sometimes you can get somewhere by luck. But you can't stay there by luck. You really have to put in a lot of hard work and and and try to expand your horizon. So I would say, make sure that your horizon is broad, that you master a few languages so that you can actually understand other people as best as you can. I would say, because you have time on your hands, I'd say, yeah, that's the best advice I can give you is enlarge the horizon, try to absorb as much as you can, try to understand other people as much as you can. And try to speak their language. It's, it's something that will pay back. I can assure you. Thanks a lot for your answer, President Lagarde and of course to Manuel for the question. Our next speaker is going to be Luca representing the Italian team. Luca, please turn your camera and your microphones on and the floor is yours. Good afternoon, President Lagarde is such an honor to be here. My question is, could the developments of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoins represent in your opinion a threat for the effectiveness of ACB's monetary policy and the stability of financial markets? What would be the future of centralized monetary system in case cryptocurrency sectors continue to advance and grow? Well, it's very nice to see you on screen. I have to say that I'm intrigued by what is standing behind you. This is our logo. It is actually a monument from our city, San Benedetto del Tronto, and yes, the name of the school, the DNA Alex and the man playing because we also have at our school a section for sports and that's developed basically. Terrific. Okay. So you asked me about crypto. I would prefer to call them crypto assets rather than cryptocurrencies. I don't know whether you used one or the other. But to me, you know, things like Bitcoins, Ethereum and others are not cryptocurrencies by long shot, actually, because they don't really respond to the three key functions that a currency should provide to its users. So I'd rather call them crypto assets. And I have said repeatedly and I've been on record to say that these crypto assets are speculative assets, are volatile, are not especially stable. And colleagues of mine have actually said that, you know, of course you can invest in crypto assets, but you have to be prepared to lose it all. And to be fair, what we have seen recently in the last couple of weeks has been a decline of the value of some of those crypto assets by more than 20%. Because one person, namely Alan Musk, said a couple of things on Saturday night show and that prompted a significant decline. So it clearly shows that it is not a currency, and it is not a way to transact as you would otherwise do with regular currencies such as the euro, such as the pound or the Swiss franc, so of course the dollar. So it is not a currency. It is an asset. It's a highly speculative asset. It has developed quite a bit over the course of time recently, but it is certainly not something that could threaten financial stability given the total value that it represents. I would say that in addition to that, because of two aspects, I think there is something really that requires regulation and supervision about it. Number one, it is a very high consumer of energy. And in those days when we are and should all be concerned about climate change and how much energy is being used and what source of energy is being used. I think we should really be concerned about that, you know, the mining that is necessary into the process of sort of fueling and supporting something like the Bitcoin system. That's number one. Number two, given that it's anonymous, although transactions are traceable, it is also very propitious to conduct some dark transactions, and it's often found as the means of exchange for businesses that are not permissible. And when we all have at heart to fight money laundering, when we all want to fight the financing of terrorism, any device that can be conducive to such activities need at least to be regulated to be supervised. And I'm pleased to see that actually at the European level, this is now beginning to happen. There's something I don't know if you followed it, which is MECA, which is a new regulation that would apply to crypto assets, exactly what you're talking about. And on which we have made, we at the ECB have made comments in order to make sure that no such thing are authorized unless it has had the approval and the consent of the ECB. So I think, you know, in a nutshell, that's what I can tell you about those crypto assets. They have thrived on the back of, you know, being fashionable, trendy, underground. But my goodness, it's, as I said, highly speculative asset, high consumers of fossil energy at this point in time, and facilitating very unacceptable trade and businesses. So I don't have much of that in my portfolio, I have to tell you. Thanks a lot. Thanks a lot to both of you. I know that Margot, representing our winning team from Luxembourg, is ready to ask the third question to you. Margot, please, the floor is yours whenever you are ready. Yes. I'm honored to be here and to be able to ask you the question. So what alternative does the European Central Bank have if neither conventional nor nonconventional measures are effective in the medium term. Thank you. Congratulations on this wonderful visual that you offer. You know, five determined women, all together joining forces and producing a team that is superb. So congrats. I think that without any, any second thoughts because I know that there was a team which I saw on on the presentation that was an all male team so you can, you know, you can perfectly legitimately be an all women team. Having said that, I'm a strong proponent of diversity. And I think that is by bringing differences together that we actually produce the best results and that's certainly what I've experienced. So, I would, you know, to your question, which is a very pointed question, I would like to make the following response. At a time when what we now call conventional monetary policy was the only way of conducting monetary policy, that is, you know, using the interest rate. Because I mean to obtain price stability. Nobody was thinking of unconventional monetary policy. So in the face of what happened in 2008 and following, particularly in the euro area in 2011 unconventional monetary policy was explored, considered the pros and cons direct and indirect effects were identified, waited. And eventually, some measures of unconventional monetary policy were used. And by that I mean the use of forward guidance, the use of quantitative easing, specific financing schemes that were put in place in order to make sure that financing would be available. And we currently have in the toolbox, all those devices, if and when a time come when alternative devices must be used, I'm sure, given the track record that central bankers have demonstrated that new tools, new items will be identified. I would say for the moment that what we have suffice. And what this current crisis has demonstrated is that when fiscal policy and monetary policy work hand in hand, they actually support each other and provide really the best outcome that is possible. So we keep improving over the course of time, whether it's by using additional tools whether it's by joining forces and showing cooperation as has been the case. But I have full confidence that you know we will not let Europe down and central bank governance all over the world will find enough creativity to have the tools needed to respond to any future crisis. Thank you. Thanks a lot. Once again, and let me now give the floor to representing the winning team from Ireland, who also has a question that wants to pose for you. Garrett, please go ahead. Hello, President Lagarde, I hope you're well. Congratulations on the vital work you do. So our question is, yourself are great supportive for tackling climate change and I've recently stated climate change will have an effect on the price stability in the era. And the ECB holds corporate bonds of 140 oil and gas companies, which indirectly aid in climate change. And do you think it is contradictory to the price stability while purchasing these bonds. Well, thank you, lads. I think it's it's an old boy team that I have in front of me, right. Yes, we're single sex school. Oh, I see. I see. I hope it's not too boring. Okay, now first of all, I'd like to apologize because in addition to my voice you probably hear some background noise because there is construction work happening just next to me and as much as I would like to keep that quote I'm very happy that there is construction activity going on because it's going to continue to revive. I've made my view extremely clear. And this is a matter which is being discussed with members of the governing council of the ECB as part of our strategy review. And my extremely clear view is that climate change is far too important a matter and far too important to challenge for us and all future generations to be considered as an ancillary aspect of anything that we do. And I am very prepared to recognize that those in the driving seats are not the central banks. Those in the driving seats are every citizen, but more importantly, the governments through regulation through taxation through budgets, they have to deploy the tools that they can in order to make sure that we go in a direction where we do not accelerate climate change, where we try to mitigate it, and where we try to help those that are on a track that is not conducive to the objectives that we have of net zero to change their business model and to adapt. Okay. So once you've said that, you haven't given the answer of what are you going to do. And I think that any central bank can operate in different directions. So number one, we have to take climate change into account when we assess the risk. And those risks are sitting in the balance sheets of banks, including in the balance sheet of the ECB. And those risks can be a threat to the existence of some corporates of some households, and therefore to the value of the collateral that they bring to get financing. So from a risk management point of view, we have to actually be able to measure that and to associate a cost to those sometimes what economists will call externalities because you don't really see it now. There's a little planning, a little scenario of what will happen if temperature goes up by so much, or if the sea rise by so much. What happens then. So we need to be able to do that from a risk management point of view. Second, when we do our monetary policy and we analyze the economic situation, the macroeconomic situation. We need to consider how many more droughts will we have, how much more, by how many more degrees the temperature will go up, how many more people will have to migrate and leave their countries because their shores are too low and they will be covered up by sea. So that has to be factored in at that level. Now, the third dimension, which is the one that is of interest and where you say, Well, when I look at your portfolio at your monetary policy portfolio. I see the corporate purchases, corporate bonds purchases that you've made. And guess what, you actually bought bonds from some of those oil and gas companies which are essentially based on fossil fuel identification exploration extraction and distribution. And to that I will say, yes, it is the case that we have some of those because so far we've operated on the basis of what has been called market neutrality. I for myself consider that market neutrality is not absolutely accurate, because there have been many more bond issuance by those companies that are that are whose business model is based on gas oil and gas to keep it simple. And a lot less bonds issued for instance by the service industry, which is yet far more important in our economies and much bigger contributors to our overall asset creation, if you will. So I don't think that we are actually in a situation of compliance with market neutrality because the principle itself is is tweet is biased if you will. So my hope is that as part of the strategy review will be able to properly quantify this market neutrality principle that we have been abiding from. And that we will actually take into account things that can be better measured in a standardized way. What do I mean by that. Today, we finally have thanks to the resilience and determination of the European Parliament, we have the beginning of a taxonomy. In other words, you know something that files what is green, what is not green. I think they're going to have to do more than that because we want to know what is green, what is not so green, what is a little bit green, what is brownish, what is really brown, so that we have the complete range of you know what is really conducive to climate change, what is going to help in the fight against climate change so we need that and we need that to be as standardized as possible. That is step one, step two, we will also need to assess what corporates are planning on doing because you know as another very good Irish person, in addition to you. So, in this with the Irish commissioner. We have to think of all those companies that employ all these people, and we can't just tell them overnight sorry, no financing anymore. They have to transition. They have to gradually move from fossil only activity for some, not so many left of that category to non fossil fuel activity and to moving into a journey. People take them to being green or as green as possible. So we will need a mechanism where we can actually assess their transition path, because we need to help them along the line. You cannot move from being 100% activity to being 0% activity, you have to move gradually across the line of becoming climate change compatible. And you have to be financed throughout the process. So I hope we can participate in that adventure because I think we owe it to you we owe it to our planet we only have one of those. And we have to preserve it. Thank you. Thank you President Lagarde. We have to preserve it. Thanks a lot for such a clear explanation President Lagarde and it seems that we have time for one very last question. And I know that our winning German team was very interested in knowing what distinguishes you from other presidents, maybe our speaker Paula would like to further elaborate and pose the question to you. Paula, please feel free to turn your camera and your microphones on. Good afternoon, Mrs President, we're very excited to speak to you today. And we wanted to ask you, which, what distinguishes you from previous ECB president, apart from being a woman and then being man. I need to tell you my shoes. When, when my predecessor, a president now President Draghi left the CB. I quote Marilyn Monroe, saying that, you know, if you give a girl the right pair of shoes, she'll go a long way. And I'm jokingly telling you that my shoes would distinguish me from my predecessors, but being more specific, I think we are, we are very much the product of how circumstances forced you to develop. And you can be the president of an institution that is just being born, and that requires a particular set of tools and skills and attributes. Then you can be the, the one that pursues the enterprise and becomes, you know, was faced with a major crisis and who has to sort of pull the pull all the strings of the anti crisis fight. And then you can continue being an almost exclusively anti crisis president. And I started, you know, back in a year and a half ago, I was hoping, and I had been told by my predecessor that it would be, it would be a smooth journey. And none of us had a clue that COVID-19 was going to hit, and that we were going to face, you know, the worst possible crisis in generations, actually. And circumstances actually force you to respond and, and equip you with, you know, the guts, the nerves. Hopefully the brain and certainly the heart to respond in in as comprehensive a way as possible, thinking about the people thinking about the young people who suddenly were, you know, short of classes, courses, studies. Left with their screen and a little room to study from their families who sometimes had to also quit their job or work from home in small places. The companies that had to completely reshuffle their plans and, and, you know, this this complete meltdown of our economies required us to respond forcefully and to face what what was a bit of a shumble, frankly. And I think to, to keep out. I think what I tried to do at the time was to work with the team. Keep my nerves, not panic, appreciate what toolbox, what tools we had in the toolbox that would be most efficient in response. And we also tried to work in cooperation with other central banks. You know, I, during that period of the crisis which I think shaped me very much. I was talking to the president of the Fed to the president of the of the presidents of other central banks on a sometimes daily basis at the beginning, and then later on weekly basis. And we had to just admit to each other that there were things that we, we did not know and we had to experiment and we had to compare notes and and and hope that what we were putting together would work. So I think there's an element of, you know, keep your nerves, have the courage, sometimes takes some risk. Check with other team players, not necessarily at home, certainly at home, but also beyond your shores to make sure that you were, you were taking as many options and narrowing it to the best possible choice in response to the crisis. I don't know if, you know, another president who'd have responded in the same way, they might have done a lot better than I did, but I certainly was myself shaped by successive crisis and this one COVID-19 was certainly of all the ones that I've that I've seen. Pretty harsh in your face kind of crisis. So voila. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks a lot to all the teams for the questions that you submitted, which were very diverse and very interesting. And of course, a big thanks as well to President Lagarde for her insightful remarks. But I think now it's time for the activity that you will all home hoping for, which is the award ceremony. I will now announce each of the teams and give the floor to President Lagarde and also some of the governing council representatives from the participating countries that are joining us today so that they can formally congratulate each of the teams one by one. And afterwards, we will also have the opportunity to take a team picture. So without further ado, let me start now by announcing our first winning team, Chateau Chappell, the national winner, the national winners from Germany. Please team, turn your cameras on so that we can all see your faces. And President Lagarde, the floor is all yours. Well, thank you and congratulations to team Chateau Chappell from Germany. I'm told that your teacher always played you one of his favorite songs to give you some strong motivation during team meetings. And I think that's, you know, it will often say that behind every successful person there is somebody who believed in them. And I think that your teacher by doing that certainly believed in you as well. I believe also that it is because you met he and Spiderman that you decided to participate in the competition so he will have to be told that he was the cause for your participation congratulations again terrific. Thanks so much team Germany please turn your cameras on we want to see you because now it's time for us to take a team picture. So smile, we are taking the picture in three. Yeah, we want all team members. Yeah. Yes, of course, you all have to be there. So let's do the quick countdown in three, two, one. Thank you so much once again for participating and for being here. Please turn off your cameras now because now it's time to announce and welcome and congratulate of course our next team coming from Ireland. Team Bentotene, who is also joined by Mrs. Halton and Mr. Pearl from the National Central Bank of Ireland, please turn all your cameras on so that we can properly see you, and I will now give the floor again to President Lagarde. Well congratulations to team Ventotene from Ireland. I'm told that you used artificial intelligence to predict interest rates. So, well done. Garrett Molloy, the team leader, I understand is writing a book on past and future European integration, and this motivated the team's participation in the competition. So I'm assuming that Garrett you are the one in the middle. But I don't. All right. Okay, well congratulations to all three of you. This is really well done. Yes. Thank you. Indeed, congratulations. And let's take now another picture in three, two, one. Thanks a lot. Thanks a lot, Irish team. Please. Are you sure that they were on because on my screen it didn't work out so well. Actually, it turns out it seems you are right, President Lagarde. So let's let's repeat it again then put on your smile behind the masks. And let's do the countdown once again. Three, two, one. Thank you. I think now it worked, right? Yeah. Yes, I think so. Thank you so much. So all the teams now please turn your cameras off, except Mr. Euro, our Spanish team who is also joined by Governor Hernández de Kos from Banka de España. Congratulations from me as well. And President Lagarde, the floor is yours. Well, congratulations to Mr. Euro from Spain and hello to my colleague, Governor of the Central Bank of Spain. So, I was told that it was you teacher Nuria, who encouraged you to participate. I'm also told that to have more time to work on the project, you ordered takeaway food at school. And you are the team that worked once so hard and so late that you were nearly locked in and would have to spend the whole night actually in the school. So well done for your resilience, your determination and your good spirit because to feel that you are locked overnight without much comfort and certainly without beddings and all the rest of it must not have been the best moment. Maybe it was the best moment actually. Thank you. Thank you so much. Let's do it once again. Picture with the Spanish team in three, two, one. Thank you. I think we are getting the jinx of it. Can you do it again because I think the first picture that was just taken was with the Governor of the Central Bank of Luxembourg, who is a wonderful governor, but he's not the Spanish governor. I think that now you have the Spanish governor. Nice to see you here. Let's do it again. Indeed. Okay. Picture time in three, two, one. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks a lot to the Spanish team. Congratulations. Please turn your cameras off now. And let's have them on only for the Eurofiles, the winners of the France competition. Let us see you please turn your cameras on and President Lagarde, the floor is yours. Well, congratulations. Congratulations to the Eurofield from France. I know that you're coming from Anonay, on Ardèche, and that's definitely not the city center that everybody thinks of. So it's even, I think, better that you had the spirit to enter the competition and win it. It's fantastic. You enjoyed the presentation round of the competition most because I'm told you are fans of eloquence. And I hear that Leah, you are the team leader, and you actually signed up the two other members for the competition, even before asking them, you just assumed that they would follow you lead. I would call that real leadership because then you managed to convince them so congratulations for your success and well done to all three of you. I understand that the governor of the National Central Bank of France is also going to be online and with us for the photo so is I know very proud of what you've achieved. Thank you a lot, President Lagarde. It is very kind. Just, unfortunately, I can't turn my camera on. And so I can't join you for the photo. I should quit the room. I don't know what to do. But you know what, technology is so great that maybe somebody will manage to photoshop you in that you can be properly recorded. Yes, of course. What should I do? I'm muted. Could you please, sorry, could you please say your name again and the colleagues here will try to support you. My name is Leah. Thank you, Leah. And of course, these goes for everyone on the line. If you have any technical questions or experience any issues, please use the chat box and colleagues here will support you as they can. But in answer to. Yeah, I think it's joined. Yeah. That's it. Thank you. Great to see you. Anyway, before we take the team picture, I just wanted to tell President Lagarde that unfortunately, governor, the governor of the Bank de France couldn't make it in the end. He had another commitment. He couldn't postpone but he did apologize and send all her best wishes to all of you and congratulations on the success of the French team as well. So now, without further ado, let's take the team picture with the winners of the French competition in three, two, one. Thank you so much. Thanks a lot. Feel free to turn your cameras off now as congratulations. We continue now the event with the Italian team. Rosetti project also joined by Director General Gallotti from Bank of Italy. Congratulations. Congratulations to team Rosetti project from Italy. Well done. I'm told that you don't have an economics class at school, but you decided to participate to just challenge yourself. And I think that's really, really courageous of you to have done so and you know it was clearly crowned with success because you've been selected. It's it's really terrific. And I think you're also the team for which just before the deadline of the second round, the website to upload your project crashed went down, and you man all the way to get to where you are so you really, really, really resilient. And you have a top notch representative of the Bank of Italy who is with us and who will be on screen for the photo. It's really good. Thank you. Yes, it's great to have you all here. Congratulations in it, especially on your perseverance. And let's now take the team picture in three, two, one. Thank you. And now we continue. We continue and we proceed with our next team coming from Luxembourg, the European team, who is also joined by Governor Reines from Banker Centrale de Luxembourg. Please turn your cameras on so that we can all see you and President Lagarde can see you while congratulating you on this achievement. Great, here are my girls. So congratulations to all of you. You team is Europe piece from Luxembourg. And I find it really great, Europe piece because you've managed to put three words into one. You've got Europe, Europe and peace. And that is really a great marketing tool that you've invented for that purpose. So terrific. I know that your school was the first secondary school in Luxembourg. And I also here and I'm very humbled and proud at the same time that your motivation to participate in the competition was actually to meet with me. So we've achieved that is great and I'm really, really proud of you. Keep up the good work. And we are very lucky because we have with us the governor of the Central Bank of Luxembourg, Gaston Reines, who is a very, very good colleague and friend and I'm so pleased that he's supporting you. Gaston, thank you for being with us. Thank you. Yes, thank you so much and maybe this time before we move on with the team picture maybe Governor Reines would also like to take the floor. And congratulate the winning team as well. Yes, let me first of all congratulate all the national winning team and to allow me special congratulations to the Luxembourg cubo place, Europe peace, Europe peace winning team. And let me express hope that some of you all will be future central bankers, maybe in your national central bank or in central bank of the euro system, because there's a lot of mobility. For example, in Luxembourg, we have more than 25 nationalities working in our central bank. So I made a bit of publicity for the euro system, Christine. Thank you. Congratulations. Well, maybe they could all come and visit with you. They can and they will. Thank you for also trade ships for the winning team. So they can have a trade ship in the central bank for two or three weeks. Everyone wishes so from the winning team. That sounds great. Yes, you should send us pictures from this visit for all of us. Yes. But before we continue with the next team, let's take our team picture in three, two, one. Thank you. There we go. Thanks a lot. And please feel free to turn your cameras off now as we move on to our next winning team from Austria, the DTM to 500 team. Please turn your cameras on so that we can all see you and President Lagarde as once again, the floor is yours. So congratulations to team DTM 2500 from Austria. I understand that DTM stands for the first letters of the team members names. And 2500 is the postcode of your hometown. Very important, the postcode, you know, for statistics and all the rest of it, it's really key. The hometown button is for you, as I understand the most beautiful city in Austria. And a year ago thought that you team, I'm told, correct me if I get that wrong. You all thought that the ECB was located in Brussels. So this project has taken you a long way into the European institutions, story, backup principles and all the rest of it. And I want to say, you know, well done for doing that and and traveling that journey to where you are now. Thank you. Yes, very well done in it. Let's move on to the picture then ready smiles ready and countdown to three, two, one. Thank you. Thank you very much. And moving on with our congratulations next are our Portuguese friends from the team after say that it a bitch, please let us see you turn your cameras on. Here you go you all on terrific. So, congratulations to all of you, the team from Portugal. I don't know how I would pronounce the name that you gave to you to your team it's a three a ED Vez so I got it all wrong. Not at all the way it should be pronounced but never mind. What I hear is that two years ago you tried and you were disqualified, because you did not fulfill the age requirement, and you didn't give up. You aged a little bit, and then you satisfied the requirements, and you now reach the top of the competition so well done. So Giza dynasty 2016 2017 winner Giza was a team from your school as well. So you set the standards. Another team in four to five years will have to also take up the mantle from you and win yet again. Congratulations and all the best in your future endeavors. I'll be in your country in a few days actually. Well, thank you very much I hope you spend a good time here and actually as a curiosity we have here. A member of our team that is a sister from one member of that team of 2016 that one here. Wow. So thank you very much. Congrats to all of you. Nice. Thank you. Thanks for sharing that and we hope that indeed there are many more teams to come in the future. Let's get ready now for our picture with the Portuguese team members in three, two, one. Thank you. Thank you so much and congratulations once again. And now, let's see our colleagues from Slovenia from the team. Absolutely. Who are also joined by deputy governor do links from bank Slovenia. Please turn your cameras on so that we can see your faces on the screen before President Lagarde addresses a few words to you. Yes, the screen is filling up. There might be a few, a few of your teachers as well. Yes, I thought that a bit like we don't we don't fit so well. We aspire to look as young as you do but we don't always manage that. So congratulations to the Slovenia team. Nicola, Nicola. Okay. So, I understand that one of the members of the team actually just left you. And you were not disenchanted frustrated or furious you just decided to get on with it and carry on the work so congratulations for in the face of that adversity. I want to demonstrate your commitment to complete the project. I think it's it's really, really good that you did that. I'm told that your school has a very famous theater group, the English student theater I don't know if any of you is a member of that, but certainly it's well known. And I think you asked what you what you had enjoyed most about the competition and you said, Oh, it's meeting with with the president of the CB. And the things that we can organize that I hope that next time around will be able to meet in person because it's, it's nice to be on screen together and the picture will stay with us. But being together in real life is something that maybe we can long for. And you have a standing invitation all of you by the way to come and visit the CB next year when things are a bit more settled. We can actually conduct business with more physical presence, but congratulations for the for the good work and the and getting to to the top as you have. Well done. Thank you. Thanks, President Lagarde and let's hope that that can happen soon before moving on with the team picture this time I'd like to ask Deputy Governor Dolenz if he maybe wants to also give a few remarks to the students. Yes, well, a lot has been said before by President Lagarde so she she demonstrated her CCC concept. And this was really an excellent demonstration of how our team responded to our to our questions and tasks and how they will respond in the future. So, I cannot add anything to that I just I'm, I'm happy that each year we get we give. We send a winning team to ECB and each each year, a winning team is better. So, I'm sure that next generations generations that will come will be smart. We are brave and prepared to take to take future action action so we don't have any fear to our to our future future generations, and I'm glad that that we are, we are part of this competition. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much to all of you as well. And let's now take the team picture in three, two, one. Thank you. Thanks a lot. Thanks a lot. Let's move on to our next team. We are very close to the end, but first we need to congratulate the members of the Sam Kobe team from Slovakia. Please turn all your cameras on. I see. Wow. There they are. I'm glad that you're all on one, one part of the screen. Fantastic. So, congratulations to the whole team, some covered yet key from Slovakia. I think the name means Sam's kids. Correct me if that's wrong. No, it's right. Okay. So this is to honor your classmate, Sam, where is some. I'm glad that you are. Okay, because I'm told that you won the competition two years ago, and you were an inspiration to your friends, and they decided to follow in your, in your footprints. And I think that's fantastic that you could do that. And I hope that each and every one of you will actually inspire others after you to do the same. I really have a tradition of competing, going for the best and winning if you can. It's really a tribute to your success, Sam. Terrific. What I'm also told is that you are not afraid of risk, because I understand that you send your video exactly one minute before the deadline. And you did so not because you were late, but just for the thrill of it, just to experience. So it's to have the taste for risk is certainly a good thing actually that's my personal assessment so well done and congratulations again to all of you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Well done and good that in the end the video made it through so that we are here to celebrate. Let's indeed take our team picture now in three, two, one. Thank you. And now last but definitely not list. Let's meet our last winning team coming from Finland, the Baltic bankers also joined by Mr Balimaki from Finland's bank. Please turn your cameras on so that we can see you all on the screen. I say it filling up. Wow. Well congratulations to team Baltic bankers from Finland. I think you're called Baltic bankers because you come from the islands islands, which is in the middle of the Baltic sea. Is that correct. What I'm also told is that many of you actually think that after high school when when you are prepared to pick and choose which which study you want to focus on many of you actually want to study economics. And that this competition has led you in that direction and you found it so interesting and and rewarding in terms of intellectual discovery and process that you want to pursue that. And it's great because as I said in my opening remarks. We need smarty pants like you to take the button and continue the race in order to better understand our economies and make sure that people can have an improved life. Thanks to your efforts so congratulations and all the best in your journey. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much you too. Thank you. Thanks a lot to all the teams. It's great to see that we have so many bright future economists in the room. It has been really good. Nice to put faces into all of you. And now before we close the event, I would like to give President Lagarde once again the chance to take the floor and address. We have to take a photo. Don't forget. Sorry. Sorry. My mistake. Apologies. Sorry. Let's take the team picture now indeed in three, two, one. There you go. So sorry about that and thanks for the reminder. Thank you and congratulations once again to all the teams. I can only reiterate what has already been said. Thank you and congratulations on this great achievement. As I was saying earlier, unfortunately the session is coming to an end, but I wouldn't want to close it before giving the floor once again to President Lagarde for her final remarks to all of you. I don't have much by word final remarks because we're running out of time I have to go to another meeting but it was a very very special moment for me because what you have achieved the determination and resilience that you've demonstrated the intellectual capital that you've generated and the spirit of competition to me is an indication that what we're doing here is not in vain. It's for you. You pals, you team players and leaders that we are trying to deliver on our mandate, do what we can as an institution in order to strengthen Europe and to continue to feed this European spirit, which is so necessary in the world with the right focus on the values that we respect in Europe. So thank you for carrying the torch. Thank you for continuing that journey with us. As I said, all of you are invited whenever the situation improves and you can be visitors to the ECB we'd love to give you a little tour of the institution. And if I'm in town and around I'll be very happy to not not shake hand because we'll try not to do that but bunch our elbows to better be acquainted. All the best to all of you and thank you so much. Thank you. Thanks to you for your time, President Lagarde. But for the rest of the students on the line, these doesn't have to be the end yet. Right after the session, if you want to stay online for a little bit longer, you will have the chance to join one of our breakout rooms. If you want to see where they are, just go down and on the right corner of your zoom screen and you will see the breakout rooms icon. If you press you will be able to see all the available rooms. In one of them, you will have the opportunity to talk and interact with all the other teams from across Europe. You can also do that via the chat function. And in the second room you will have the unique opportunity to post questions and talk to all the national central banks representatives joining us here today. So I really encourage you to take this opportunity to further interact with all your colleagues and national central banks representatives that have also been a key part of this of this competition that we are celebrating here today. Beyond that and beyond this session, if you want to stay connected with us and also with the Giza competition, I encourage all of you to follow us on social media and use the hashtag generation euro. As mentioned, it was a pleasure seeing all your faces today and hearing from you. And once again, congratulations. The best of luck in all your future endeavors. Thanks a lot. And I wish for you to stay safe and healthy. Thank you.