jean - claude trichet : international interdependencies and monetary policy – a policy maker ’ s view speech by mr jean - claude trichet, president of the european central bank, at the fifth ecb central banking conference “ the euro at ten : lessons and challenges ”, frankfurt am main, 14 november 2008. * * * ladies and gentlemen, i would like to express my gratitude for having the opportunity to host this panel of distinguished experts and colleagues. dear ben, dear stanley, dear ning, and dear guillermo : i greatly appreciate your willingness to participate in this conference despite the tremendous challenges we are all currently faced with. i would also like to use this opportunity to thank the conference organisers for a superb job and indeed all conference participants for their important contributions. it is perhaps unfortunate that the current crisis distracts our minds from the subject of the conference : the euro coming of age. in different conditions, i would have argued – as i did in the past – that, far from suppressing growth and entrenching divergences, the euro has spurred a spectacular drive of job creation virtually everywhere in the union. by helping and fostering a long - due redressing of economic priorities and processes, the euro has enabled many countries participating in monetary union to do their best to compete successfully. we see signs that this restructuring is spreading to other parts of the union that have been less successful so far in taking up the challenge. under normal circumstances, european monetary union – international integration in its most intimate form – would have been the subject of these remarks. with the current crisis in the background, however, i want to address a different form of convergence and cooperation in the international arena, which involves central banks and crisis management. of course, this brings me quite far. with ever stronger global integration of goods and services trade and, in particular, financial markets there are increasingly stronger linkages among the world regions. as a result, economic and financial crises in one world region increasingly spill over to other regions. at the same time, corrective policy action in one region creates conditions and economic incentives that are felt and are acted upon elsewhere. how should policymakers around the world deal with this fact? in particular, is there a case for international coordination of macroeconomic policies? i will try to give a tentative answer to these important questions. i will argue that we need to be careful with what we understand by international policy coordination. policy coordination does not mean, of course,

the potential for growth of the greek economy. 3 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches conclusions let me conclude. i have traced the progress achieved so far and mapped the challenges ahead for the third greek adjustment programme. a year ago, european leaders agreed on a set of measures that will secure greece ’ s future in the euro. if everyone plays their part, i am firmly convinced that at the end of the programme, greece will be better able to reap the benefits of economic and monetary union – a union of 340 million people sharing the same currency – and its economy will be stronger and more resilient. we should not forget, nevertheless, what else we can do to make greece stronger in a stronger europe. let me be clear : europe will not address matters of pressing concern such as security or migration without a strong and sustainable economy. a lot still needs to be done to make our economic and monetary union stronger. the ecb is committed to playing its role as the central bank for the euro area, and thus for greece. thank you for your attention. i look forward to your questions. 1 the ecb ’ s role in surveillance is enshrined in eu secondary legislation ( ‘ two - pack ’ regulation ( regulation ( eu ) 472 / 2013 ). 4 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches