jean - claude trichet : interview with die welt interview with mr jean - claude trichet, president of the european central bank, conducted by jan dams and martin greive on 7 october 2011. * * * welt : mr trichet, at the time you took up office, did you think it conceivable that you would be dealing with such a serious crisis in the currency union? jean - claude trichet : even before the outbreak of the financial crisis, the ecb warned that it was highly likely that there would be major corrections in the financial markets. however, the fact that the crisis would call into question the whole economic and financial strategy of all developed economies was not quite so foreseeable. you have had to take harsh criticism of your crisis management from germany. how disappointing is that for you? that reminds me of a goethe quote : “ against criticism a man can neither protest nor defend himself ; he must act in spite of it, and then it will gradually yield to him. ” the ecb must accept the criticism. the only thing that matters is that we are faithful to our primary mandate and take our decisions fully independently. it is about precisely that that increasing doubts are being expressed. under your leadership, the ecb has lost its independence because it has financed hard - up euro area countries by printing money. this criticism is completely inaccurate. we are fiercely independent of governments and pressure groups. all our decisions are made fully independently by the 23 members of the ecb ’ s governing council. and we are totally devoted to our primary treaty mandate of price stability. we have delivered price stability over 13 years with an annual inflation rate of 2. 0 % for the euro area as a whole and 1. 55 % for germany. this is better than any time over the previous 50 years. for the last four years we have been experiencing the worst global crisis since world war ii, and not surprisingly it is hampering our monetary policy transmission. that is why we have had to take some non - standard measures but with caution and prudence. with our decisions since the outbreak of the crisis, we have reacted appropriately to the market failures in the financial markets. we have lived up to our responsibilities. the two german members of the ecb ’ s governing council, axel weber and jurgen stark, both resigned because they could no longer support the buying up of government bonds. jurgen is a very good european and a very close friend. over the last 18 years he

have to be inflexible and oppose any pressure group. under your leadership, the ecb has risen to become europe ’ s secret government. is it not deeply undemocratic when representatives of an unelected institution like the ecb can dictate austerity plans to an elected government like italy ’ s? we do not dictate anything to anyone. we do not replace any government. we do not take any political decisions. we are only giving messages to governments individually, and to the eurogroup as a whole. this has always been our task since the setting - up of the ecb. do you not think it was appropriate for us to tell the big countries in 2004 that they should not weaken the stability and growth pact? bis central bankers ’ speeches almost all experts agree that europe must come closer together. how do you imagine the europe of the future? i would make a distinction between the immediate future, and – after a change in the treaty – what i would call “ tomorrow ” and the “ day after tomorrow ”. immediately we must apply completely and rigorously the new governance which has just been approved by the parliament and the council. “ tomorrow ” we must have the possibility to impose decisions on a country that is not applying the recommendations and, in so doing, is putting the system as a whole in danger. and “ the day after tomorrow ” we should have a significantly stronger political union with an executive branch and, in this executive branch, a european finance minister. he would be responsible for surveillance of fiscal and economic policies, for the monitoring of the financial sector and for the representation of the european economy in international institutions. at the end of the month, your term of office comes to an end and you will step down after years as president of the ecb. what headline would you like to read over your period in office? despite successive oil shocks and the global crisis, the ecb governing council has delivered greater price stability than in the previous 50 years to 332 million fellow citizens. do you already know what you are going to do with your spare time in future? i have not made any specific plans, because i am concentrating fully on my last weeks in office. my greatest privilege will surely be that i will have more time for reading, for meditating on the present history of europe and to spend with my four granddaughters : eleonore, diane, anna and marie. bis central bankers ’ speeches