jean - claude trichet : the eurosystem team at ten years dinner address by mr jean - claude trichet, president of the european central bank, on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the central bank of luxembourg, luxembourg, 12 november 2008. * * * cher jean - claude, cher yves, monsieur le ministre, chers collegues de la banque centrale du luxembourg, dear colleagues of the eurosystem, dear guests, ladies and gentlemen, it is a great pleasure for me to celebrate with you this evening the 10th anniversary of the banque centrale du luxembourg ( bcl ) which, i might note, is of the exact same age as the ecb. the bcl was created with the aim to have it firmly anchored both within the european system of central banks and the national institutional environment. looking at how the banque centrale du luxembourg has developed in the past ten years, i am impressed by the professionalism and the determination with which it accomplishes its mission. one extremely important factor when setting up of the bcl was to guarantee its full independence, in line with the provisions of the treaty and the escb statute. i am particularly pleased to note that this year, and most recently on 24 october 2008, amendments were made to the legislative framework of the bcl, which among other things further improve and strengthen the provisions relating to its independence and its role in the field of financial stability. the ecb was duly consulted and has welcomed these developments in its legal opinions. 1 let me turn now to the institutional context in which the bcl operates : the creation of european monetary union is one of the most profound steps in the history of european integration with major significance for the everyday life of our fellow citizens. indisputably, one of its main accomplishments is the introduction of a single currency and the set - up of a federally - structured european system of central banks. no historical precedent exists for such a structure. it is unique. the us federal reserve system is comparable only to a limited extent, as it is based on a single nation state and is therefore not applicable to the diverse and multilingual euro area which is made up of individual sovereign nation states. i would like to recall that a very original federal - type structure was chosen since it corresponds best to the institutional diversity of the community, keeping some continuity by : • respecting the ncbs ’ institutional set - up, infrastructure and operational capacities and, at the same time,

as much as possible market tensions. let me now turn to how the interaction between the component parts of the system, the ecb and the national central banks, which are an integral part of the eurosystem, are organized. the statute gives some guidance regarding the distribution of labour within the eurosystem where it states : • the ecb shall ensure that the tasks conferred upon the escb [ eurosystem ] are implemented either by its own activities or through the ncbs ( art. 9. 2 ) ; • to the extent deemed possible and appropriate, the ecb shall have recourse to the ncbs to carry out operations which form part of the tasks of the escb [ eurosystem ] ( article 12. 1 ) from these articles it is clear that in the system of currently sixteen component parts the ecb has a special position : it is the “ captain of the team ”. the ecb and its decisionmaking bodies, the governing council and the executive board, are the decision - making centre of the eurosystem, and many important decisions taken are – in full conformity with the principle of decentralisation – implemented by the ( respective ) national central banks ; of course, on behalf of the eurosystem. still, at the beginning, it was probably hard to imagine how the eurosystem would work in practice, since the statute allows a degree of leeway on how to design the interaction between the ecb and the national central banks. it is clear that the major achievements of the eurosystem which include the successful establishment and conduct of the single monetary policy, the smooth introduction of the euro and the launch of the euro banknotes, could only be accomplished through the very close cooperation of the staff of the eurosystem central banks. the teamwork necessary to successfully master these challenges and the experiences gained in the process contributed to the emergence of a shared identity which found its concrete expression in the eurosystem mission statement, its strategic intents and organisational principles. i regard the signature of this strategic document by all eurosystem central banks in 2004 to be major achievement of our team and i am sure that yves shares this view. together these documents define the role of the eurosystem, the principles it should rely on to achieve its main objectives, and how all its members should interact and cooperate on the basis of shared values. in other words, these three tools aim at increasing the coherence and unity of the eurosystem