and leverage its economic and strategic power. besides, there is an expectation here : the world is watching europe. on climate change, for example, only europe can achieve what was decided in the paris agreement. and donald trump himself : is he a factor in economic development? and growth? he ’ s constantly taking credit for the strength of the us economy. in the short term, yes, because he is going to reduce taxes on us firms – that will create growth in the united states. in the long term, it ’ s a different story. speaking of risks, mr cœure, i imagine you have looked closely at the economic programme of the new italian government, which would necessarily lead to an increase in its deficit and debt. what do you have to say about that in frankfurt? first of all, we respect democracy. so we don ’ t lecture newly elected governments. you ’ re not saying “ the markets will teach the italians to vote for the right thing ”, as one european commissioner put it? for example. we will see what the italian government proposes. basically, in the end, when you look at the situation the italian economy is in, the challenges facing italy are pretty straightforward. its public debt is at a very high level. €2. 4 trillion. exactly. and its productivity, its productivity growth – so its potential, structural growth – is very weak compared with that of other large european countries. those two challenges have nothing to do with the euro, or even europe. we will see what the italian government puts forward as a solution. but they are aware of these challenges : the new minister of finance, mr tria, spoke about this the day before yesterday. but how will you respond if their deficit exceeds 5 % of gdp, or even reaches 7 %, as some forecasts suggest? will you intervene? it ’ s not necessarily up to you, but it ’ s instability that... it ’ s up to the commission and the governments to ensure compliance with the budgetary rules. 2 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches it ’ s true that in frankfurt we consider these rules important, because the euro is a community, we are in this together. it ’ s like shared ownership, so we start by respecting the rules. yesterday mario draghi, the president of the ecb, felt the need to mention that the euro is “ irreversible ” when talking about italy. why did he say that? why did he emphasise

has flagged that the reinvestment of maturing bonds could be the next important policy step for the ecb. will this become a way for the ecb to provide a little easing? it is an important part of a package of measures that delivers monetary accommodation, sustained monetary accommodation beyond the end of net asset purchases, that is, after december 2018. there are two aspects : we have the enhanced rate guidance and we have the reinvestment policy. so it is clearly part of the package. it will ensure that the ecb keeps a very significant market presence beyond the end of the net asset purchases and for an extended period of time after the end of the asset purchases. that said, we haven ’ t discussed any details, so any details related to the maturity of our reinvestment, that ’ s a technical discussion. that ’ s not something the governing council or even our committees have discussed. is it going to be done before the end of this year? we ’ ll certainly have to discuss it. i see it as a technical discussion ; i don ’ t see it as a major aspect of our monetary policy when it comes to the maturities. but the commitment to reinvest is important because it will ensure a continued market presence, which is important to maintain the degree of monetary accommodation. could these reinvestments exceed €160 billion next year, could they be closer to €200 billion, for example? the reinvestments are quite mechanical. they derive from past investment policy. as you know, we are committed to being very transparent. we are publishing the reinvestments 12 months in advance so you will have the numbers when they come. 2 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches there is some flexibility when it comes to reinvestments. can the ecb and some national central banks reinvest a government bond into a corporate bond, or viceversa? that is not something we ’ ve discussed. that will be a technical discussion. what i don ’ t expect is any departure from the principle of capital key investment of government bonds, which has been a key principle at the heart of our public sector purchase programme. there are reports about some kind of “ operation twist ” from the ecb about buying longterm bonds. is this happening? as i said, that ’ s not something we ’ ve discussed. that ’ s something you ’ re planning to discuss? that ’ s something that ’ s on the table?