The European Central Bank (ECB) will hold its 3rd Central Banking Conference on 21st and 22nd October 2004 in Frankfurt on "The New EU member states:

'convergence and stability;. The 1st ECB Central Banking Conference was held on 2nd and 3rd November 2000 under the heading 'Why price stability?' The 2nd conference on 'The transformation of the European financial system'? was held on 24th and 25th October 2002.

The purpose of these biannual conferences is to encourage an exchange of views on specific topics of interest to academics, central bankers as well as other policy makers and to raise awareness of the ECB's policy objectives and functioning, thereby increasing its openness and transparency.

The aim of this year?s conference is to bring together high level academics, central bankers and other policy makers to discuss issues related to the participation of ten new Member States in the European Union and their future accession to the euro area.

The preliminary programme of the conference is attached to this press release. All papers will be made available on the ECB's website. The discussions and comments will be put on the website immediately after the conference. The ECB also plans to publish a book containing the research papers, discussants' contributions and summaries of the discussions as part of its ongoing contribution to economic literature.

Attendance at the conference is by invitation only.

Download the preliminary programme of the conference.