the economy was going to pick up on its own. but growth stumbled in summer 2014. on top of that, the tumbling oil price raised fears of possible deflation. we moved from a comfort zone where we thought a cyclical upturn would emerge spontaneously towards a more dangerous zone where inflation rates would be persistently adrift from our definition of price stability ( i. e. 2 % ). that ’ s what finally led us to decide to buy up assets. in this period, we may have been partly feeling our way, or it could just have been caution. when you are designing an entirely new tool, you have to take time and do it properly. our concern, both during summer 2012 with omts and in late 2014 / early 2015 with asset purchases, was to come up with tools that would suit the specific features of the euro area and also find the highest possible level of consent around the table at the governing council. that needed a process of maturation and time for debate. so while some people may see a risk of inertia, in fact we ended up with decisions that are better designed, and ultimately stronger and more credible. don ’ t forget that the ecb ’ s governing council has 25 members : there are only nine on the bank of england ’ s monetary policy committee. for instance, we had discussions on whether to buy just government securities, or corporate bonds too. we concluded that the trade - off between complexity and impact was less attractive for corporate bonds. we also talked about risk - sharing ; who was going to buy, who bis central bankers ’ speeches was going to shoulder the risk linked to the securities we were going to buy? you need time to have that debate and settle it in a way that satisfies the largest number of people. there is a great deal of discussion about the effects of the asset purchase programme ( qe ). what can you hope to achieve when long - term yields are already extremely low? within the euro area, the transmission channel that is almost the most important in my view is confidence. confidence that the ecb will take its mandate to keep inflation below, but close to, 2 % seriously. before we took this step there had been doubts about the willingness of the ecb to respect its mandate. but it was the only substantive measure possible in the circumstances ; we had run out of conventional measures because the scope to lower key rates had been exhausted. the second channel is to lower borrowing costs, which aren ’

my message is that the eu is, at this stage, an emerging union, built on the basis of member states who agree – or disagree – to pool sovereignty. moving to a deeper economic integration, which is commensurate with a monetary union, is necessarily a process. but it is underway. such a deeper economic union will not be the archetypical union, which some of you may have in mind. it is worth remembering that the union on this side of the atlantic was built over almost 250 years, and it took 150 years to establish a central bank. the eu is 60 years old, and the euro, only 13. over recent years, the euro area has taken big steps forward to reinforce its framework for fiscal and macroeconomic governance. member states continue to display unprecedented solidarity towards each other, providing financing for programmes of economic adjustment along with the imf. the establishment of a banking union, including a single supervisory mechanism involving the ecb and, the forthcoming proposal for a single resolution mechanism, are further examples of deeper integration. earlier this year, the economist reviewed last year ’ s doomsday predictions about the imminent demise of the eurozone. it noted correctly that “ the pessimists did not overestimate the euro ’ s problems, so much as underestimate the political will to do enough to stop a euro break - up. ” going forward, it would be a grave error to underestimate the continuing political commitment to making the single currency a success. but it also remains true what was once said, namely that eu institution - building is like the love - life of the elephant : everything goes on at a very high level, a lot of dust gets raised – and you have to wait for months and years for results. thank you. bis central bankers ’ speeches