Ladies and Gentlemen,

Welcome to the 7th annual New York Financial Forum hosted by Paris EUROPLACE. We continue to give great importance to these regularly scheduled meetings between the Paris financial market and the New York market.

At our luncheon we will have the great honor of welcoming Mr. Nicolas Sarkozy, France's Minister of the Economy, Finance and Industry.

I want to thank all of this year's speakers. Special greetings and thanks to Ambassador Felix Rohatyn, former American Ambassador in France, Roel Campos, Member of the SEC, and John Thain, CEO of the New York Stock Exchange, who will be taking part in our discussions.

This year's theme is transatlantic investment. I want first to point to the extraordinary dynamism of investment flows between the United States and Europe, particularly since the introduction of the euro, and with the continued integration of European markets. Whatever the ups and downs in our political relations, the continued development of business between the two shores of the Atlantic is a necessity if we are to consolidate our regional economy in the face of international competition, particularly from the major economies of Asia.

This theme will be developed throughout the day in several plenary sessions. The first is on structural reforms: What can Europe learn from the US model?

The second plenary session, with the participation of company CEOs and investment bankers, is devoted to the development of cross-border deals.. Our third plenary session- this afternoon- will be dedicated to regulatory convergence, a subject to which financial market professionals pay great attention.

In addition to these round table discussions, we are holding parallel sessions, the purpose of which is to delve more deeply into a number of operational and business questions. This year's innovation is this afternoon's Special Focus, dedicated to high-tech enterprises and the development of venture capital, which directly affect our positioning in tomorrow's industrial and service sectors. This theme already provokes great interest, and I hope that the success of this focus will encourage us to pursue an approach of this kind in the future.

Before turning the floor over to the first round table, I want to briefly address four themes close to my heart.

While the positive inroads have been made, there are still challenges ahead for building Europe as a whole. The shift to the Europe of 25, with the integration of new Members, raises the stakes even higher for the entire European economy but it also opens the door to all of the potential opportunities that enlargement brings. The Europe of 25 that we are building represents a market of 450 million consumers-the largest domestic market in the world in terms of purchasing power. The new members add 5% to Europe's GDP. There is still a long road to travel before the new members can adopt the single currency; but we believe they will, given their important growth potential. Their growth rate is now higher than that of the 15 older members.

Today, Europe can be a genuine partner to deal with. In the area of financial markets, the projected completion of the Action Plan for Financial Services in 2005 is a decisive event that will enable us to take stock of the actions taken, and to prepare the steps that follow. Paris EUROPLACE, and the professionals of the Paris financial market who are actively contributing to this process, have many ideas on how to continue Europe's financial integration. We need to increase the competitiveness of the European financial market by capitalizing on the dynamism that came with the euro, as well as on the synergies created by the existence of complementary financial markets. We need to develop more truly European financial players, following the models of industry and other services.

Second, at the risk of challenging you, I want to stress that Europe is young, and very much engaged in the dynamics of innovation. As a result, we have organized the special focus entitled High tech companies: Invest in the French Expertise? This type of innovation is really innovation squared, treating both technological innovation (the theme of the focus) and financial innovation; that is, the financing vehicles set up to adapt to the needs of high-tech companies, whether through private equity or listing on a stock exchange. This theme of financing innovation is an important subject of Franco-American discussions. This is true both because we have much to learn from your experience in this subject, and because I believe that this subject is a veritable gold mine for business development-particularly for American investments in French and European high technology.

Third, I want to address regulatory convergence a which is central for the development of financial operations between the United States and Europe: Of course, much has already been said on this subject. To take the example of corporate governance, it seems to me that the major European countries-France in particular- are now up to standard. I also want to stress the importance to this subject of the quality of cooperation among regulators. Two of these- your Securities and Exchange Commission and our Financial Markets Authority (l'Autorité des Marchés Financiers or AMF in French)- are taking part in our round table this afternoon. This is also a good occasion for me to pay homage to the important work under way at IOSCO, the International Organization of Securities Commissions; both the SEC and our AMF are in the front rank of promoters of this effort.


The Paris financial market has many important advantages in the European environment that I have described:

- we have a very broad base of major companies;

- We are leaders in asset management;

- Our securities trading platform, Euronext, is first in Europe in transactions, ahead of London;

- French market regulation is of the highest quality, and we continue to improve ethics and corporate governance.


Beyond the traditional activities that you know well Treasury paper, corporate bonds, blue-chips several others are now developing rapidly and attracting both investors and operators, such as asset management companies and investment banks. I am thinking of M&A, venture capital, real-estate securities and funds and insurance. All of these areas are in full expansion and offer the best opportunities.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the ambition of Paris EUROPLACE is to be a center of cooperation and dialogue between the professionals of the Paris financial market and more broadly of the European market and the New York market.

I hope that this day will allow you to explore all possible paths of cooperation and the development of the business activities between the actors in our financial markets.