in the past. you would welcome the creation of a european ministry of finance. do you think that attitudes are ready for that? not as president of the ecb, but as a citizen, i can imagine a development for “ tomorrow ” and “ the day after tomorrow ”. tomorrow, it would be necessary that we could impose on a country the essential decisions after several refusals to apply the recommendations formulated by european governance. thus, one could prevent a particular economy from adversely affecting the financial stability of the rest of the area. this requires a change in the treaty, now being specifically envisaged by governments in the euro area, which i welcome. as for “ the day after tomorrow ”, one can consider a deeper institutional change, with a genuine european executive. in any case, europe ’ s historical development depends entirely on the lessons our democracies will draw from the crisis, on the conclusions the people of europe will draw from the events experienced since 2007. what are you going to do now? first of all, i ’ m going to read a lot and think a lot. then, knowing me as i do, i know that i ’ m going to stay active. bis central bankers ’ speeches

jean - claude trichet : interview with le monde interview with mr jean - claude trichet, president of the european central bank, conducted by messrs erik izraelewicz and clement lacombe and ms cecile prudhomme on 27 october 2011, and published in le monde dated 30 – 31 october 2011. * * * new agreements were reached on the night of wednesday 26 october to thursday 27 october by the heads of state and government of the euro area, three months after the summit of 21 july. is this, at long last, the end point of the crisis? this agreement must be applied rigorously and quickly in all its dimensions, including the improvement of governance. decision - makers must strive to be ahead of events, even if the speed of decisions in our democracies is not necessarily that of the markets. a key challenge for the euro area is to communicate with investors and savers in the rest of the world, who have difficulty in deciphering european decision - making. provided that their decisions are implemented quickly, the euro area countries have the means to improve the perception that the rest of the world has of europe. nevertheless, there are still uncertainties … which element needs the greatest vigilance? progress has to be made on all points in a resolute way. in respect of governance, in the past, at the ecb, we have found ourselves preaching in the wilderness, when negligence by governments, markets and by many economists was the rule. we knew a time when markets did not distinguish between the signature of greece and that of germany, when a majority of observers felt that the stability and growth pact was a too tight corset which prevented europe from breathing, and when the whole world believed that imf loans had become useless. that was still the case in early 2007! your successor, mario draghi, has indicated the ecb is going to continue its purchases of government bonds. does this mean he has given in to political pressure? mario has repeated what the council had communicated previously. hasn ’ t the independence of the ecb been affected nonetheless? the question doesn ’ t arise. the treaty requires us neither to receive nor to seek instructions from anyone. we did not ask for permission to take exceptional measures on 9 august 2007 to confront the first waves of financial turbulence! we were criticised by germany and france when we refused to lower rates in 2004, and by ten out of 12 countries when we increased them in december 2005. all