concept had basically been fulfilled and that the design complied with the relevant regulations in the fields of building and environmental law. next steps so where do we go from here? the governing council decided that the next step would be an “ optimisation ” phase in which the selected architect would again review his design on the basis of further guidance from the ecb. we will reassess the ecb ’ s functional and spatial requirements and, on that basis, seek to further optimise the design with the aim of reducing costs. with regard to the cost, the estimates available at present, taking into account the optimisation potential, suggest that the construction costs will be about €500 million. the total investment costs, however, will be higher, since they include additional elements, such as the cost of purchasing the grossmarkthalle site, planning fees and other infrastructural costs. some of these additional cost items are related to the construction costs, while others depend on further deliberation and specification. more precise information on the cost aspects of the project will be provided at the end of the detailed planning phase. i should like to emphasise that we will continue to work closely with the city of frankfurt authorities in the coming phases of the project, especially in view of the urban development plan that will be adopted by frankfurt ’ s city council. i am delighted that the governing council ’ s decision has been very well received ; not only by representatives of the city of frankfurt, but also by the local and international media. let me conclude by stressing that the governing council was very pleased indeed with the way the competition ran, with the quality of the designs and with the outcome of the competition. of course, more challenges and many further decisions lie ahead. the successful completion of the competition is, however, an important milestone on the way towards building a new home for our institution. i am convinced that the winning design chosen by the governing council will become not only a frankfurt landmark, but also a symbol of a united europe and its single currency, the euro. i would now like to invite prof. prix to present his design proposal.

monetary policy stance effectively reaches the economy. in this regard, the current institutional overhauls aimed at preserving sound bis central bankers ’ speeches public finances and safeguarding financial stability would also contribute to favouring a smooth functioning of the monetary policy transmission in the euro area. finally, for achieving price stability the hard - earned credibility of monetary policy must not be put at risk. here, any demand on the ecb to address the short - comings of other policy areas by compromising on its mandate or its guiding principles must be clearly rejected. 4. conclusion when i joined the executive board of the ecb eight years ago, i was of course not expecting that i would have to leave it in the middle of such challenging times. but i am confident that eight years from now, my successor as ecb board member will have more pleasant topics to talk about : how economic and monetary union has been renovated, how the financial system has been made more resilient, how sound public finances have been restored or how the euro area economy has returned to stable growth. in the meantime, of course, i am also confident that monetary policy will have continued to maintain price stability in the euro area. thank you bis central bankers ’ speeches