enhance the credibility of achieving 2 percent among the public and to raise inflation expectations in a more forceful manner. at the mpm held on november 1, the bank decided to maintain the guideline for market operations in which the short - term policy interest rate is set at minus 0. 1 percent and the target level of 10 - year jgb yields is set at around zero percent. it will make policy adjustments as appropriate, taking account of developments in economic activity and prices as well as financial conditions, with a view to maintaining the momentum toward achieving the price stability target. thank you. 2 / 2 bis central bankers'speeches

start of the competition, more than 300 candidates from 31 countries representing four continents submitted their applications. of those, 80 architects - 70 “ established ” architects and 10 “ emerging young ” architects - were selected to participate in the first phase of the competition, although only 71 actually presented outline proposals for the new ecb premises. all proposals had to be submitted anonymously. a notary was involved to make sure the identities of the candidates remained secret throughout the competition. in august 2003, the 12 members of the international jury - which was made up of architects, and representatives of the city of frankfurt, the ecb and national central banks, and that i had the honour to chair - examined the outline proposals. twelve candidates were selected out of the 71 to participate in the second phase and were invited to submit more detailed design concepts. on 12 and 13 february 2004, the jury reconvened and evaluated all 12 design concepts on the basis of the criteria set out in the competition brief : • the overall town - planning, architectural and landscaping concept ; • compliance with the main features of the functional and spatial programme, including modularity, in line with the ecb ’ s needs ; • the energy and environmental concept and compliance with the main features of the ecb ’ s technical requirements ; and • compliance with the relevant building and environmental laws. in its evaluation, the jury placed particular emphasis on whether the design concepts reflected the values of the ecb and conveyed an appropriate image for the ecb ; and to what extent the fundamental appearance of the historic großmarkthalle building was preserved. the jury ’ s choice of winner for the first prize was based on a very large majority within the jury ( 10 in favour out of 12 ). thereafter, jury members expressed their preferences for the two designs to be awarded the second and third prizes, and the votes cast established a clear ranking. given this unambiguous outcome, all members of the jury accepted the final ranking of the three prizewinning designs as the consensual choice. let me now briefly present to you the three winning designs. i am delighted that the prizewinning architects were able to attend today and they will be happy to answer more detailed questions about their designs in a moment. 3. the three prizewinning designs the first prize was awarded to coop himmelb ( l ) au. their design concept was viewed by the jury as a powerful image, reflecting values of the ecb, such as transparency,