to move towards a form of democratically legitimate fiscal union, which would make it possible to provide monetary policy with full protection against the risk of a member state defaulting. but this is not where we are at present. what we are trying to do is protect ourselves and respect the boundary between what is technical and what is political by referring to a political framework, in this case the decisions of the eurogroup ( the group of euro area finance ministers ). the new greek government wants to change the content of the structural reforms, which is perfectly legitimate because that ’ s what it was elected to do. but this creates a transition period while the contract between the country and the rest of europe is being redefined. that transition creates uncertainty, and during this time the country is no longer able to obtain funding on the markets. on 20 february the eurogroup agreed on a discussion framework, and it is up to this body to decide whether to release some of the funds from the european assistance programme and think about a possible further programme. we have been working within this exact bis central bankers ’ speeches framework. it is not up to the ecb or the bank of greece to finance the greek government and we will make sure that this does not happen. not only because it would be illegal – the treaty explicitly prohibits a central bank from financing a government – but also because the opposite decision, i. e. to finance a government while a political agreement is being reached, would amount to a circumvention of the eurogroup ’ s decision. the latter, which represents the democratically elected governments, has decided not to grant a bridging loan to the greek government : what right then would the ecb, which does not hold a political mandate, have to do so? we are well aware that we will always be caught between a rock and a hard place : our decisions, whatever they may be, can always be interpreted politically by one side or another. however, the eurosystem is completely fulfilling the role it has as a central bank, which is to finance the greek economy. week after week the liquidity provided to greek banks has been increased. just one figure : last december the loans granted by the eurosystem to the greek banks amounted to €45 billion. now, in mid - april, they are at €110 billion, well over twice as much. so we are doing our job as a central bank for greece but it is not our role to get involved in a

questions have a huge impact in terms of potential growth as well as financial stability ( the climate risks can be covered more or less well by different types of financial instrument ) and, ultimately, price stability. monetary policy is linked to the general price level but it cannot ignore the structure of relative prices. we can see clearly today that one of the most important questions we are facing is the fall in the oil price. these questions, such as the consequences of a european energy policy or of different energy policies within each euro area country, different energy mixes, between the use of nuclear power or renewable energy... all these choices have an impact on the structure of relative prices and on convergence or divergence at the heart of the euro area. we have to understand better how this issue will change the way the economy works so we can adapt our monetary policy accordingly. it is not for the ecb to encourage particular investment decisions which are carbon - saving to a greater or lesser degree or which form part of this or that policy. to do so would be to cross the line between monetary and economic policy and give way to the fascination i mentioned earlier. and yet we can see clearly that there are very deep political disagreements which the ecb cannot settle, on the energy mix, the terms of the ecological transition, etc. however, everything we are doing at the moment forms part of an approach aimed at rekindling investment. compared with the traditional policies of central banks, which are geared to the short term, qe is an extension of the intervention horizon of monetary policy. for instance, the average term of the securities purchased as part of qe is nearly nine years. so monetary policy is having more impact than before on the financing conditions for long - term investments. this is particularly crucial for financing investments linked to the energy transition. in short, we are creating favourable conditions for long - term investment, and it is up to the governments and the european institutions to take advantage of these conditions. bis central bankers ’ speeches