willem f duisenberg : what are the political consequences of the euro? introductory remarks by dr willem f duisenberg, president of the european central bank, at the karlspreis - europa - forum, aachen, 8 may 2002. * * * ladies and gentlemen, you have invited a central banker to open this round - table discussion on the political consequences of the euro. some may consider this a somewhat odd choice of speaker. as you are well aware, independent central bankers are anxious to keep a certain distance from the political process. at the same time, i will not deny that my job as a european central banker is inextricably linked to the wider historical process of building an " ever closer union " of the peoples of europe. the move to economic and monetary union was a profoundly political act – despite the fact that the underlying rationale was predominantly economic, namely that a single market requires a single currency. understood in this sense, emu itself is a " political consequence " of earlier decisions. a " product " of a functionalist approach to european integration. successfully applied by the founding fathers of the community, it has led us from a limited pooling of sovereignty in the coal and steel sectors to today's european union. with ups and downs, pauses and great advances, and through grand visions and incremental steps. but throughout the process, integration has been driven forward by the inherent dynamics of market opening, of deepening economic interdependence and of continuous political engagement in common institutions. with the euro, this network of interrelations and mutual dependencies has undoubtedly acquired a new quality. so where do we go from here? this round - table discussion will look precisely at this question. its title refers to " political consequences of the euro " and insinuates, in this way, some kind of watertight relationship between cause and effect. as a central banker and economist, i am only too aware of the danger of misinterpreting concurrent developments as causal relationships and of the risk of treating simple extrapolations from current trends as predictions of future developments. therefore, rather than talking about consequences, allow me to use the term " implications " and to distinguish between the likely " policy " implications and possible " political " implications. by policy implications, i mean further policy measures that are needed to shore up the success of the single currency, and to ensure that the benefits of complementing a single market with a single currency are reape

willem f duisenberg : current economic developments and prospects in europe, as well as other activities of the eurosystem introductory statement delivered by dr willem f duisenberg, president of the european central bank, at the hearing before the committee on economic and monetary affairs of the european parliament, brussels, on 20 june 2000. * * * once more it is my pleasure to appear before your committee in order to report on the recent monetary policy decisions taken by the ecb and on the reasoning underlying these decisions. to this end, i shall also present the ecb ’ s analysis of current economic developments and comment briefly on the outlook for the euro area. i should also like to add a few words on the change in the procedures for the allotment of liquidity in the main refinancing operations of the eurosystem, beginning with the operation to be settled on 28 june 2000. moreover, i should like to inform you of other important decisions taken by the ecb, particularly in the area of transparency, which is an issue that has frequently been raised in the framework of our regular dialogue, and to which the ecb attaches great importance. 1. current economic developments and prospects over the past few months both pillars of the monetary policy strategy of the eurosystem have indicated that upward risks to price stability have increased. the developments in monetary and credit aggregates over the first few months of 2000 clearly indicated that liquidity conditions in the euro area were generous. the three - month average of the annual growth rates of m3 ( covering the period from february to april 2000 ) was 6. 3 %. this followed an increase of 5. 9 % in the period from january to march 2000. there has, therefore, been a further deviation of m3 growth from the reference value of 4½ %. annual m3 growth, as measured by the three - month moving average, has been almost 1½ percentage points above the reference value since the end of the summer of 1999. it was almost two percentage points above the reference value in april 2000. growth of credit to the private sector, which was already high throughout 1999, increased during the first four months of 2000, reaching, on an annual basis, 11. 4 % in april 2000. developments in the first pillar thus indicated that upward risks to price stability had increased over the past few months. they needed to be counteracted in time. looking at the information provided under the second pillar, the outlook for growth in the euro area has