crisis – have failed to calm the markets. does the ecb have an ace up its sleeve, if i can use that expression? or will it provide a reminder of president draghi ’ s words, “ whatever it takes to preserve the euro. and believe me, it will be enough. ”? i think that the ecb president christine lagarde has made it clear that we will do what needs to be done. there is no doubt about that. this crisis is different. it is not financial in nature. it could become financial if we did nothing, but it ’ s not a financial crisis. it ’ s a health crisis that will have a huge economic impact. what we can do is relieve any financial pressures that may arise. but the main action will come from governments, through fiscal policy. the ecb has announced that it will buy more debt, that it will inject liquidity. that is correct, we have announced that we will buy €120 billion more than we were buying before. the previous figure was €240 billion, and we can be flexible in our approach. we will also ensure that the markets continue to function properly, that fragmentation does not occur, particularly with the spreads, since this would affect the transmission of our monetary policy impulses. that ’ s why we are taking decisive action. are you in favour of adjusting interest rates like the us federal reserve or the bank of england? our interest rates were already much lower. first of all, i feel that the most important step to take was to introduce liquidity measures. european banks have all the liquidity they need at their disposal, under very favourable conditions. the second step comes through bond purchases. these two measures will have a much greater effect than adjusting interest rates, which in europe were already – 0. 50 %. the volatility that the markets are experiencing, the instability : is it temporary? do you think that investors will somehow calm down once they see all of the measures that have been taken starting to take effect? as you mentioned earlier, i think that all of the central banks, all of the governments, we are going to do everything we possibly can. but calm will return once we actually start to see that the epidemic is under control. that is the key issue. take china for example. china is a leading 2 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches indicator of what might happen. after experiencing a drastic fall in economic activity for two months, things have started to

member states entered into a political commitment, and the european commission is now proposing to create a single supervisory mechanism for banks in the euro area and to entrust this task to the ecb. this single supervisory mechanism should be implemented in a way that does not compromise the ecb ’ s independence and does not constrain monetary policy. it should be complemented by a single regime to wind down failed banks and by a single resolution fund at euro area level. finally, building a deeper emu requires a strengthening of democratic legitimacy and accountability. the people of europe will only accept a further pooling of competences at european level if european policy - makers are subject to high standards of accountability. bis central bankers ’ speeches the european parliament, whose representatives are directly elected by citizens, already plays a central role in holding the ecb and other eu institutions to account. as a consequence of deeper economic and political integration in emu, the euro area will become, in my view, more and more a “ political space ” in its own right and, as such, it will require proper euro area accountability mechanisms. political legitimacy is vital to build popular support for further integration. 4. conclusion ladies and gentlemen, when robert schuman drafted the declaration that started the european integration process, he predicted that “ europe will not be made all at once, or according to a single plan. it will be built through concrete achievements which first create a de facto solidarity ”. when looking at europe ’ s progress since the second world war and the step - by - step building of emu, we can indeed see that what holds europe together, what has been its engine, and the reason for its success, is the notion of solidarity. solidarity is sometimes narrowed down to mean one - way support, from donor to recipient. of course this has always been a key consideration in the european construction. the eu structural funds, which go to europe ’ s poorer regions, are a very tangible measure of this kind of solidarity. likewise, the european crisis mechanisms efsf and esm are a symbol of euro area solidarity. solidarity is not just a catch - phrase in emu ; it is essential for all. let me come back to schuman ’ s insight that “ concrete achievements first create a de facto solidarity ”. we have reached a point in the history of europe where de facto solidarity has created a need for concrete achievements. in recent years we have made impressive progress in putting emu ’ s architecture on a