economic cycle is changing and growth is slowing rapidly, you might see different decisions being taken in frankfurt and in washington reflecting our different mandates. in addition to the influence of history, the eurosystem ’ s mandate reflects academic insights from the last 20 years or so. this research tends to support the view that monetary policy should only focus on price stability. other central banks around the world that have reviewed their mandates in recent years have tended to move towards having price stability as their sole objective. similar proposals have also been made regarding the fed. if the fed ’ s mandate were to change in the future, i expect it to also be in the direction of a more explicit focus on price stability. organisation of the two monetary unions a second area in which our different histories have played a role is in the way in which the eurosystem and fed are organised. while the fed was created ‘ from scratch ’ by the federal government for a single country, the eurosystem was established when twelve sovereign states voluntarily gave up their monetary autonomy. this is reflected in the fact that the eurosystem is some ways more decentralised than the fed. greater decentralisation is consistent with the eu - wide principle of subsidiarity, under which decisions are taken at the country or regional level where possible. this greater degree of decentralisation is apparent in areas such as monetary policy decision - making and operation, banking supervision and statistics. however, the fed can also be considered decentralised in other areas. in fact, when you exclude staff working on tasks unrelated to the monetary union, both systems have roughly the same number of employees. clearly, this does not tell us much about the potential for efficiency gains, except that it is around the same in both systems. the european monetary union is made up of sovereign countries. that means that it is not politically or publicly acceptable to carry out all central banking tasks at the ecb. our preference for subsidiarity also implies that there are limits to potential efficiency gains within the system. the pace of further centralisation is linked to the speed of further political integration in europe. as long as there is no federal european state, i expect that providing an independent view on national and euro area economic developments, within the context of area wide monetary policy, will be a key task for the dutch central bank. tasks related to financial stability and banking supervision will also remain part of our core business. in order to carry out these tasks effectively, we have to remain

supply and demand. and higher inflation would in turn require, again, a firmer policy response from central banks. but from a democratic, and perhaps more importantly, moral stance, the valid question remains : what can governments do to alleviate some of the worst economic pain without increasing price pressures further? first of all, we probably all agree that the most vulnerable households need to be helped with well - targeted financial support. for a lot of other households, compensation should come from targeted wage growth. while it is paramount to avoid a wage - price spiral, it is also important that wages rise in sectors of the economy that have the scope to do so. second, governments should address supply - side restrictions more directly where they can. on the energy market, this means achieving a more balanced mix of energy sources as soon as possible. on the labour market, this means removing the impediments that constrain labour supply growth – there is still room for improvement in labour participation in several european countries. third, the economic reform agenda and the public investments that can boost potential growth must continue. and preferably, this will be done without further deficit spending, because public debt levels are already uncomfortably high. if you look again at “ the threatened swan ”, you will see a very natural phenomenon : a swan defending her eggs. but the swan is also fierce and grand. filled with passion. filled with conviction. if it could, the swan would march right into this gallery. for many of us here tonight, the dog in the water is inflation. for others, it is the energy crisis. the refugee crisis. the climate crisis. the pandemic. an atrocious war on european soil. each and every one of us, here or elsewhere, each in their own capacity, should step forward, spread their wings wide, and defend, fierce and grand, with passion, with conviction, the eggs of our times. i thank you and wish you a very pleasant evening.