 Good afternoon to the European participants in the conference. Good morning to those of you in North America. So my name is Philip Lane. I'm a board member here at the ECB and it's my role to offer a brief set of welcoming remarks for our annual monetary policy conference, which this year is an online format. So the agenda for the next two days I think reflects the wide range of topics rather than for monetary policy. So between the papers that will be presented and the keynotes, it covers quite a wide range. So monetary policy normalization, which of course is of immediate interest. The structure of money markets, the structure of bond markets, and a very important that seems throughout to think that the two days is the role of information, how beliefs are formed, how people learn, and in today's highly uncertain economic and inflation environment. I think this is a very pertinent topic. Let me mention also, which of course for us is very helpful, is a lot of the agenda reflects the unique nature of the euro area. The ECB is a young central bank. The euro area as a single currency zone is only 20 years old. And of course, with that limited track record, the ability to to understand how the euro area performs under today's circumstances is limited. It's also clear that with now about to be 20 countries were created joining, it's a complicated monetary system. So without full fiscal union, full capital markets union and incomplete banking, banking union, it's clear that we kind of have a like for like comparison between the euro area and other monetary zones. And this is, I think, reinforced by the fact that the euro area has undergone a quantity of routine changes over its 20 years. So comparing the macro institution environment now to 20 years ago is quite different. So in terms of institutions, you know, the role of the ESM, the SSM, next generation EU, and to add some acronyms from us, OMT and now TPI, all of these are institutional changes which affect, I think, the conduct and transmission of monetary policy. And of course, I think this is a very relevant situation. Now, regardless of the institutional setup, the heterogeneity in the euro area across the different countries, I think is again very important to understand from monetary policy. And again, in the agenda, you know, looking at, for example, the fiscal implications of national differences in convenience use, you know, is something very relevant, as is the issue about information spillovers across the member countries and parcel contagion effects. And also, I quite liked the theme of trust in macroeconomics, which is one of the papers in the session, because of course, I think we would all be very sympathetic to the integration of behavioral economics into macroeconomics, the role of rules of thumb, heuristics in learning about how the area operates. And again, I think this is even more important. When there's really double learning, I think the area, you know, we all have to understand how our own national economies operate, our own national institutions operate, but also there's an aggregation to understanding how the area as a single monetary system operates. And then maybe just before I finish and hand back to the agenda. Let me just make a comment on monetary policy normalization. So, you know, with the suite of policies we've had since 2015, where we've had very low policy rates, where we've had significant asset purchases, and we've also had a very extensive lending program through the Telji program, having a joint understanding of what normalization means. The normalization of rates, the normalization of lending operations, and the normalization of asset portfolios, I think it is important in terms of sequencing and rather contribution. And the paper on this topic, I'm sure, would be very helpful to us as we think more about these issues. So with that, you know, I'm envious of those of you who are able to take part for the next day and a half. Ordinarily I would try to participate, but unfortunately on this occasion with the IMF meetings going on, it's just not possible. So let me wish you the best of luck for the current two days. And with that, hand over to the first session.