mr. tietmeyer ’ s address at the international frankfurt banking evening co - speaker ’ s address by the president of the deutsche bundesbank, prof. hans tietmeyer, following the lecture “ achieving a credible currency for europe ” held by dr. sirkka hamalainen, governor of the bank of finland at the international frankfurt banking evening on 5 / 5 / 98. i sirkka, first of all, thank you very much for having come and for your extremely interesting speech. you have spoken to us this evening with dual authority : on the one hand, as the governor of a highly successful national central bank and, on the other, as a prospective member of the ecb executive board. in the face of such concentrated authority in your address, there is hardly anything pertinent that i can add. i can only emphasise one of the core sentences of the speech you addressed to the ncb governors, and which is certainly true of the board members as well : “ the interests of the entire euro area must always come first. ” without any doubt, this rule is the crucial cornerstone of the ecb in achieving credibility. the topic of our gathering this evening is “ achieving a credible currency for europe ”. nominating sirkka hamalainen to the executive board of the ecb is, however, without any doubt an invaluable step on the way to a credible currency for europe. i am sure that you, sirkka, will be a jewel in the crown of the - hopefully - stable euro. by the way, in brussels a number of men were likewise earmarked for the executive board. but they are, of course, not so important - not, at least, this evening. sirkka, sincerest congratulations! we are all delighted that you are going to become a frankfurt central banker. i wish you, for our own sakes, every success. - to begin with, of course, on the way to your definitive appointment. - and particularly in your office here in frankfurt, from the summer onwards. [UNK] ii however, not everything that happened last weekend in brussels contributed to the necessary expectation that the euro will be a really supranational and depoliticised currency. i would like to make three remarks on the decisions which were taken in brussels last weekend. 1. the compromise reached in brussels over the weekend on filling the office of president of the european central bank is a decision taken by the political authorities which we take

note of and on which i do not want to make any further comments. 2. the suggestions made with regard to the nominations for the executive board of the ecb are to be viewed favourably overall. the persons involved are acknowledged experts on monetary and banking issues, and for the most part have many years of experience in the field of monetary policy. that certainly goes for professor dr. otmar issing, who is to be appointed for eight years. it is to be hoped that the appointment process will be completed very soon, and the european central bank thus established. 3. the european central bank must endeavour from the start to build up the necessary confidence in the sustained stability orientation of its policies, and must demonstrate its independence of political influences. as a member of the future ecb governing council, i shall strongly support any such policy. iii sirkka, frankfurt will become your new place of action. i wish that you will feel happy here in frankfurt. and i am sure that will be so provided that you are able to get to know frankfurt a bit. for if every one of the eleven national parliaments - like parts of the french national assembly - in future wanted to hold regular consultations with the members of the ecb executive board, you would not get to see very much of frankfurt, other than the airport. i hope that will not be the case. i also hope that you will like frankfurt. of course, i don ’ t suppose frankfurt can compete with helsinki in every respect. but in many ways it can. in terms of culture, too, frankfurt has a great deal to offer. after all, culture and banking go well together. it is no accident that the great finnish composer jean sibelius once said : “ it is only among bankers that i have ever come across an appreciation of music ; it is very rare among artists, who prefer to talk about money. ” [UNK] iv another reason why you may feel at home in frankfurt is that - in my opinion - there are a number of common features in the finnish and german mentalities. both national mentalities are inclined to speak their mind clearly and frankly. it is possible that both the finns and the germans do not always express themselves with that elegance and fluency that so distinguishes the representatives of those civilisations which were more influenced by rome. but finns and germans alike are conspicuous for a strong sense of realism, for clear - cut, if sometimes somewhat harsh, powers of judgement, and for a