. today ’ s central bankers have their finger on the pulse – “ action ” is guaranteed. central banker education has therefore long played an important role in europe. in the european system of central banks, the escb, a special training and development task force was set up to organise seminars throughout europe. its main focus is on introductory seminars to the escb as well as leadership and soft skill training. the work is shared between the european central bank and the national central banks but it is quite common for courses initially conceived by and for a specific central bank to be later “ opened up ” to other central banks. however, the typical scenario is a training course that is designed as a joint project by the national central banks together and then provided to all. the creation of a european central banking system itself gave rise to completely new aspects, also for training : since then the aim has been to network and multiply knowledge throughout europe. the idea is to develop a common understanding of ( monetary ) policy processes to a joint culture. but that ’ s not all : for more than 20 years now, in its technical central bank cooperation programme, the bundesbank has also been providing a wide range of tailor - made international seminars for central banks in transition, emerging and developing countries on request. the main focus of these seminars is on exchanging knowledge and experience with partner central banks that request such services. the interest in these services is still high. to celebrate twenty years of central bank cooperation, last month we held a conference in our convention centre in eltville am rhein attended by central bankers from over 40 countries. to quote mark twain, “ a little education makes the whole world related ”. the escb regularly uses our convention centre in eltville to host conferences and events on the topic of education. the centre ’ s location in the rheingau valley, with the river rhine, vineyards, ruins and castles is ideal, as this is the image of germany that we would like to project. on balance, bundesbank spends a lot of money for education and their training establishments. so we act according to the statement of john f. kennedy who once said : “ there is only one thing that costs more than education in the long run – the lack of it ”. but which approach is the deutsche bundesbank currently taking with its cooperation with the business schools that feature on today ’ s agenda? the answer is simple : we want to promote central banker education. by using external experts and combining

joachim nagel : el economista speech by dr joachim nagel, president of the deutsche bundesbank, in honour of mr pablo hernandez de cos, governor of the bank of spain and recipient of the echegaray prize, madrid, 2 november 2022. * * * 1 introduction ladies and gentlemen, today we are celebrating the award of the echegaray prize to an outstanding economist and central banker. pablo, it is a great pleasure for me to speak at this wonderful event in your honour here in madrid. i could certainly talk for a long time about all your achievements and merits, but my time is limited, so i will have to remain brief. 2 life path and achievements allow me first to say a few words about you, your life path and your major achievements. pablo hernandez de cos was born on january 20, 1971. his family originates from santander, a beautiful region in the north of spain. this region is, i guess, more green but less sunny than average for the country. he graduated in economics and business administration at the university college of financial studies in madrid in 1993 and in law at the national university of distance education the following year. his career as a central banker started in 1997, when he joined the research division of the department of monetary and financial studies at the banco de espana as a senior economist. a year later, he moved to the economic policy analysis division at the department of economic analysis and forecasting, where he stayed until 2004. as you can see, pablo is familiar with the groundwork carried out by economists at central banks. he was one of the economic experts that central banks are famous for. perhaps i am stressing this point because i believe that getting to know a central bank from its heart is a highly valuable experience. in this period, pablo not only worked as a senior economist at a central bank, he also got his phd at the same time. a great achievement! meanwhile, he also opened a chapter in his life that someone from frankfurt like me is especially pleased to talk about : in 2000 he came to this city for the first time as a country expert at the ecb, staying for a few months. after receiving his doctoral degree, he deepened his frankfurt connection further and became an advisor to the executive board of the ecb in 2004. his second frankfurt experience lasted much longer, spanning three years until 2007. his first child was even born in frankfurt. this gives me reason to hope that he can