jean - claude trichet : interview with le point interview by mr jean - claude trichet, president of the european central bank, with le point, frankfurt am main, conducted by messrs romain gubert and patrick bonazza on 15 march 2010 and published on 17 march 2010. * * * le point : the countries of the euro area have just come to an agreement on helping greece and saving it from attacks by speculators. does this not reward bad behaviour and betray the principles of the maastricht treaty? jean - claude trichet : the countries of the euro area have just echoed the commitment made by the heads of state or government with regard to taking determined and coordinated action, should it prove necessary, to safeguard the stability of the euro area. one thing i see from the greek crisis – and this is of fundamental importance – is that nobody is now questioning the principles of the stability and growth pact. on the contrary, those principles have been robustly reaffirmed. the greek government has just adopted a series of very significant, necessary, convincing and bold measures. it has clearly indicated its objective of complying with the fundamental principles of the stability and growth pact within a reasonable period of time. this is important. remember that in 2003 and 2004, a period that was less turbulent than the current situation, the pact was strongly criticised – in particular by the previous french president and the former german chancellor – and the ecb stepped in with a robust defence of the pact in order to prevent it from being rendered meaningless. now, nobody questions it. the people who vehemently criticised the pact in the past have now realised the extent of the need to respect it – both for the cohesion of the euro area as a whole and in order to preserve and strengthen the confidence of households, firms and investors, thereby fostering growth and job creation. le point : you ’ re an optimist. the greeks are demonstrating their dissatisfaction. they don ’ t really seem ready to tighten their belts … jean - claude trichet : surveys – including those conducted very recently – show that the people of greece understand well the need to put their public finances in order and adopt the measures necessary in order to return to growth and job creation. like everyone else who shares the single currency, the greek economy has – from the moment it joined the euro area – enjoyed a number of significant advantages in monetary terms. being part of the euro area has strengthened the greek economy. thanks to the euro

the financial system. but they ’ ve only tackled tax havens and traders ’ bonuses. not much of a review, is it? jean - claude trichet : there is a global consensus among industrialised countries and emerging economies, first, that the principles of the market economy remain the best way of creating wealth, second, that the global system has to be a lot less fragile and much more robust and resilient and, third, that the best methodology consists in working together in the g20, the financial stability board and, in particular, the basel committee. we have an obligation to achieve results. our democracies would not forgive us if, in the future, we had another crisis as deep as the one we experienced in 2008 and 2009. we ’ re not looking for scapegoats. we have to strengthen, systematically and methodically, the frailties of the global financial system. those who say that once the storm has passed, we should return to “ business as usual ” are grossly mistaken. that ’ s not the way we will achieve growth and create the jobs that are so necessary. le point : would you, for example, be in favour of the creation of a european rating agency? jean - claude trichet : it is true that rating agencies have a great deal of influence. it is not ideal to have a global oligopoly of just three agencies. that said, artificial creations must always be avoided. we are closely monitoring this issue. le point : and the creation of a european monetary fund ( emf )? jean - claude trichet : the governing council of the ecb has not yet taken a position on this issue. i will only say that, if my understanding is correct, this would be a possible source of financing, subject to extremely strict conditions and without constituting any form of subsidy, that would aim to prevent phenomena that could cause financial instability in a euro area country. it would not be a monetary entity, so that adjective does not seem appropriate to me. in any case, i believe that the activity of such a fund, if created, should be strictly controlled and confined to cases of an extremely serious and specific threat. but i would repeat that the governing council of the ecb has not yet taken a position on this issue. le point : could a scenario be envisaged in which a country is no longer able to meet its obligations and leaves the euro area? jean - claude trichet : i have always