too slow. can you be more specific, mr president? which countries in the euro area need to do more? draghi : all of them. including germany? i said all of them, some more than others. i welcome the german government ’ s announcement of additional public investment in infrastructure. every country has its own agenda. those governments that have already implemented reforms are now reaping the benefits. this applies first and foremost to germany with its agenda 2010. germany is now much more robust and stable than the rest of the euro area countries. such examples are encouraging. once upon a time, southern germany was farmland. now, it is the hub of new technologies. what about the highly indebted countries in southern europe? bis central bankers ’ speeches draghi : spain has begun its liberalisation with great courage and is now one of the fastestgrowing countries. in france and italy, the willingness to implement reforms is growing. some have been approved e. g. the labour market reform in italy, others have been presented and are being discussed, which has taken time. the real challenge is to put it into practice. i understand the impatience. reforms have waited too long. it is now time to implement them. that ’ s my message. and what about greece specifically? draghi : it ’ s now for the greek electorate to decide about the future composition of the parliament and the government. jean - claude juncker, president of the eu commission, nonetheless wants to give france, italy and belgium more time to reduce their much too high debt. all three are in breach of the agreed fiscal rule of spending no more than 3 % of national income on new debt. should another exception be made? draghi : it is up to the eu commission to judge this. in march, it will give its judgement on the behaviour of the countries in question. for the ecb, it is important that the european stability and growth pact is adhered to, because compliance with the rules that we gave ourselves is a primary source of confidence. in reality, your expansionary monetary policy, which is pumping trillions of euro into the markets, is just buying the governments more time – and it seems that no one is really using this time. do you feel alone in your fight to save monetary union? draghi : we have a mandate. it is to keep inflation close to but below 2 %. that is our legal obligation. and we must deliver, within our mandate given by the european

mario draghi : interview in handelsblatt interview with mr mario draghi, president of the european central bank, in handelsblatt, published on 2 january 2015. * * * mr president, the pope is of the opinion that, these days, europe is looking old and sick. do you share his opinion? draghi : europe needs to regain its self - confidence after the crisis. this cannot happen by miracle. it hinges upon european governments and european institutions. it requires the introduction of reforms and a stable financial framework. this way, european citizens will regain confidence in their future and their opportunities. confidence is the prerequisite for a society in which people buy and invest. europe can do that and i am firmly committed to that goal. the pope says that, also for the sake of the rest of the world, europe should regain youth and health, and it is in our power to make it happen. what is causing this lack of confidence that you refer to? draghi : it is a legacy of the various crises that happened in 2008 and 2009 which clearly revealed the weaknesses in the old framework. and what did you find? draghi : we found that the debt levels of banks and nation - states were too high. important rules of a market economy – for example, the rule that risk and responsibility go hand in hand – had been forgotten. all this contributed to shatter the confidence of many people in europe. this is why europe is in need of structural reform. i have been saying this for a very, very long time. i can only repeat it. you keep saying it but you are not being heard. the ratio of debt to gdp has continued to rise everywhere in the west. in europe, the government debt to gdp ratio has risen by almost 50 % since the start of the financial crisis in autumn 2008. at the moment, only five of the 18 euro area countries do not exceed the debt limits laid down in the stability and growth pact. draghi : this is partly due to the fact that, in some parts of europe, there has been absolutely no growth over the past few years. however, more recently, most countries have started to grow again, though weakly, and to put their fiscal positions in order and to undertake structural reforms. and, as a result, debt levels are falling for the first time. but, this takes time. moreover, progress on the important structural reforms – more flexible labour markets, less bureaucracy, lower taxes – is clearly