, i plunged into goethe. i re - read “ werther ”, this remarkable novel. i learned a lot about goethe, germany and also frankfurt, in particular from “ dichtung und wahrheit ”. in a different cultural field wim wenders impressed me very much, especially the movie “ der himmel uber berlin ”, on the two angels over divided berlin, their meditation and the “ temptation of flesh ”. the dialogues are from the german speaking writer peter handke. you already told us how busy you are. but do you have time to just stand in the kitchen and prepare your own meal? often, when my wife is not here, i prepare my meal. it is not that i have the time, but that i must do it. so you don ’ t enjoy it? not too much. but do you enjoy the wine from the rheingau? yes, i was already used to excellent german white wines. and i ’ m very impressed by the progress the winemakers made with red wines, which are more challenging to produce at this level of quality. what do you like in the german kitchen? i don ’ t know whether i should confess that in frankfurt : i have a dedication to “ weißwurst ”! i would prefer it very much to the regular “ frankfurter ” sausages. but i ’ m not – not yet! – bold enough to take it for breakfast, with beer, like in bavaria … do you go to restaurants? from time to time, usually in the westend, where there is an impressive number of italian restaurants. how often do you travel to st. malo? not sufficiently, in my opinion. for vacation, and, apart from vacation, very rarely. your plans after the end of your term in november, 2011? we ’ ll see. i have no plans till now. but i ’ m sure i will be very active. with employees from how many nations do you cooperate with? here in this institution, we have the 27 nationalities that exist in the european union. on top of that we have some other nationalities for limited periods of time. what do i need to study in order to get a job at the ecb? of course there are a lot of possibilities. we need experts in finance, economics, management of human resources, legal issues, administration, accounting, etc. etc... we need a wide range of expertise. where do i apply for a job?

action by public authorities was instrumental in limiting possible cross - border spillovers in the recent crisis. to illustrate this point, let me just quickly recall that the eurosystem and other central banks have ensured adequate access to central bank funding to liquidity - constrained but solvent banks. governments, on their part, in a concerted and coordinated manner granted guarantees on new issuances of bank debt. they in addition committed to providing banks with additional capital resources, and jointly decided to raise the level of protection of deposits. the eurosystem has contributed to this work by proposing a set of recommendations on the appropriate framework for both the granting of government guarantees and the recapitalisation measures for financially sound banks. with regard to the government guarantees, the eurosystem recommendations provided not only overarching objectives but also specific parameters for the pricing system. in these recommendations, we have stressed the importance of supporting solvent but liquidity constrained banks and preserving the level playing field. in addition, consistency with the eurosystem ’ s liquidity management should be ensured so as not to impair the implementation of the single monetary policy. with regard to the recapitalisation measures, the eurosystem, in collaboration with the european commission, also contributed by elaborating a common framework for the pricing of different forms of capitalisation instruments. these measures aim to strengthen the capital position of fundamentally sound banks and to restore a smooth flow of credit to the economy. at the same time, they aim to preserve a level playing field and avoid undue distortions in competition. it is in addition important to ensure that the temporary nature of the government measures is preserved and that private investors are not being discouraged. the methodology of the eurosystem has been incorporated in the commission ’ s communication on the recapitalisation of financial institutions. finally, coordinated action was very important in the granting of state deposit guarantees. we all saw how initially uncoordinated initiatives immediately led to spill - overs with potential detrimental effects for banks in other countries that did not enjoy a similar level of protection. timely concerted action among member states led to a joint decision to raise the level of protection of deposits. the action was accompanied by a prompt initiative by the commission to amend the deposit guarantee schemes directive. this amendment had the full support of the ecb. the recent events have shown how the member states and the eu institutions can act in a rapid and coordinated manner when necessary. however, there is no room for complace