regions within belgium, germany, spain, france and portugal. for example, while ecb - sceptics were in the majority in eastern germany and bavaria between 2016 and 2019, monetary union supporters dominated in western germany. [ 10 ] only around a third of those individuals who completed full - time education at the age of 15 or younger are monetary union supporters. in the group of people who were at least 20 years old when completing full - time education, the share of monetary union supporters rises to around 50 %. monetary union supporters are mainly found among managers, students, other white - collar workers and self - employed individuals. by comparison, support for the monetary union among manual workers and unemployed individuals is 10 to 20 percentage points lower. the share of ecb - sceptics in this group is almost as high as the share of monetary union supporters. [ 11 ] after the share of monetary union supporters had temporarily declined across all age cohorts in the wake of the financial and sovereign debt crisis, this group once again constituted the largest population share across all age cohorts at year - end 2019. [ 12 ] bursian, d. and furth, s. ( 2015 ), “ trust me! i am a european central banker ”, journal of money, credit and banking, vol. 47, pp. 1503 - 530 ; similar results can be found in : farvaque, e., hayat, m. a. and mihailov, a. ( 2016 ), “ who supports the ecb? evidence from eurobarometer survey data ”, the world economy, vol. 40, issue 4, pp. 654 - 677. [ 13 ] farvaque, e., hayat, m. a. and mihailov, a. ( 2016 ), “ who supports the ecb? evidence from eurobarometer survey data ”, the world economy, 40 ( 4 ), 654 – 677. [ 14 ] ehrmann, m., soudan, m. and stracca, l. ( 2013 ), “ explaining european union citizens ’ trust in the european central bank in normal and crisis times ”. the scandinavian journal of economics, vol. 115, pp. 781 - 807 ; kaltenthaler, k., anderson, c. j. and miller, w. j. ( 2010 ), “ accountability and independent central banks : europeans and distrust of the european

our non - standard decisions have been taken in complete independence. that independence is essential. you are the captain of a ship passing through a terrible storm. isn ’ t it dangerous for the euro to have to change its captain right now, because of mandate issues? in the storm the direction is clear : the mandate given by europe ’ s democracies. one has to be permanently alert. the weather has been particularly rough for four years. the crew of the ecb is on deck. the crew does not change. the future president has been on the ship for years. he has shared in all the decisions in a collegial way. he has considerable experience. emerging countries like china could come to the aid of europe via the efsf … in the summit statement there is an increase in the intervention capability of the efsf, thanks to a leveraging effect. in practice, this means that, in addition to european capital, bis central bankers ’ speeches private capital – and possibly public capital – from around the world could invest jointly with the stability fund. they will do it because it will be in their interest of course. do you understand the criticism coming from germany, namely that the ecb had gone too far in its support for states? in our democracies, criticism is natural and necessary. some people in germany and other countries regard our policy as too bold. while other people think of us as being too cautious... we keep the currency for 17 countries, for 332 million fellow citizens, for citizens of all persuasions. we have a course to follow, price stability, and our non - standard decisions since 9 august 2007 – the first global decision in the crisis – have been taken to help us restore a proper implementation of our policy in a crisis without precedent for 65 years. price stability has been ensured since the creation of the euro, but europe ’ s economy has weakened, unemployment has grown... since 1999, prices have increased by 2, 0 % per year. we have done what was demanded of us by europe ’ s democracies. i will add that our fellow citizens, the 332 million people in the euro area, are extremely attached to price stability, particularly the most vulnerable among them. opinion polls show this. with regard to employment, we have created around 14 million jobs in the euro area since the launch of the single currency, compared with around 7 million in the united states. these job creation efforts must be resolutely pursued