european central bank : press conference – introductory statement introductory statement by mr jean - claude trichet, president of the european central bank, and mr vitor constancio, vice - president of the european central bank, frankfurt am main, 2 december 2010. * * * ladies and gentlemen, the vice - president and i are very pleased to welcome you to our press conference. we will now report on the outcome of today ’ s meeting. based on its regular economic and monetary analyses, the governing council confirmed that the current key ecb interest rates are appropriate. it therefore decided to leave them unchanged. taking into account all the new information and analyses which have become available since our meeting on 4 november 2010, we continue to expect price developments to remain moderate over the policy - relevant medium - term horizon. recent economic data are consistent with a positive underlying momentum of the recovery, while uncertainty is elevated. our monetary analysis confirms that inflationary pressures over the medium term remain contained. we expect price stability to be maintained over the medium term, thereby supporting the purchasing power of euro area households. inflation expectations are firmly anchored in line with our aim of keeping inflation rates below, but close to, 2 % over the medium term. the firm anchoring of inflation expectations is of the essence. the governing council today also decided to continue conducting its main refinancing operations ( mros ) and the special - term refinancing operations with a maturity of one maintenance period as fixed rate tender procedures with full allotment for as long as necessary, and at least until the end of the third maintenance period of 2011 on 12 april 2011. furthermore, the governing council decided to conduct the three - month longer - term refinancing operations ( ltros ) to be allotted on 26 january, 23 february and 30 march 2011 as fixed rate tender procedures with full allotment. the rates in these three - month operations will be fixed at the average rate of the mros over the life of the respective ltro. overall, the current monetary policy stance remains accommodative. the stance, the provision of liquidity and the allotment modes will be adjusted as appropriate, taking into account the fact that all the non - standard measures taken during the period of acute financial market tensions are, by construction, temporary in nature. accordingly, the governing council will continue to monitor all developments over the period ahead very closely. let me now explain our assessment in greater detail, starting with the economic analysis.

economic and monetary union. to do so, we must be willing to accept meaningful changes to the institutional framework. as i have said in the past, a good starting point would be to assign powers to a european finance minister. in keeping with the spirit of the maastricht treaty, the finance minister could coordinate national economic policies in a different way. he or she could ensure that national fiscal policy is conducted with a view to contributing to the achievement of the eu ’ s objectives. the trouble for politicians is that voters may feel that granting greater scope at the eu level means taking away from national interests. but then there are the 70 years of peace ; there ’ s free movement across nearly an entire continent ; and there ’ s the world ’ s second largest economy. all this shows us that what we sometimes feel may be taking away our national sovereignty is in fact adding meaningful value to our lives. and this is why we should take more time to reflect on the achievements of the past. what ’ s more, politicians are not the only ones with a role to play. european unity starts with each individual ; it starts with you. you can each reflect on how you could promote europe as citizens, as students and as future leaders. the eu ’ s crisis response and the banking union dear students, having asked you to reflect on your role within the union, it is only fair to tell you about how i do my part. a large portion of my professional life since 2012 has been devoted to the creation of the european banking union. to understand how the banking union came about, we have to go back to the financial crisis. in the eu, it began as a crisis of the banking system and turned quickly from a financial crisis into the great recession. and many of the troubled banks held large amounts of their own governments ’ debt. this, together with the fact that some countries were already highly indebted, created a vicious circle. and so the sovereign debt crisis emerged. in june 2012, european leaders announced their intention to create a european banking union. but you may ask : why would a union change things? well, for a number of reasons. first, if we want to foster a healthy european banking market that can also serve the real economy in a downturn, we should make sure banks are all subject to the same rules. and to the same unbiased, intrusive supervision and resolution practices. in 2009, the eu had already started working on common rules for the banking