jean - claude trichet : interview with paris match interview of mr jean - claude trichet, president of the european central bank, conducted by ms elisabeth chavelet ( paris match ) on 7 december 2005 and published in the edition of paris match dated 15 - 21 december 2005. the publication of the translation was authorised by paris match. * * * paris match. after two uneventful years at the head of the ecb, in december you became embroiled in your first political storm. political leaders, economists, bosses and trade union representatives lined up to condemn the 0. 25 % increase in your headline rate on 1 december. they accuse you of threatening europe ’ s fragile recovery. has this manning of the barricades made you think again? jean - claude trichet. i would not say that the last two years have been uneventful. it has been necessary to safeguard price stability in a period made very difficult by the increase in oil prices. moreover, it is only to be expected in large and exemplary democracies that different opinions should be voiced. it is up to us to speak out tirelessly and marshal the most convincing arguments. that said, i believe that the public debate did not reflect the true feelings of the 311 million european and 60 million french citizens. all the indications are that that our fellow european citizens require us to be vigilant with regard to price stability and that they are not overly content with the situation as it stands. i would have preferred at least part of the public debate in europe and france to have focused on what our fellow citizens want. we believe that, by remaining faithful to our mandate – which is to safeguard price stability and preserve the euro ’ s purchasing power – we are doing what 311 million europeans require of us while, at the same time, by doing so we are supporting growth and job creation. p. m. many europeans label the euro a factor of inflation after seeing the price of a loaf of bread rise from five french francs to €1, an espresso from five french francs to €1. 20, or a scratchcard from ten french francs to €2. what do you think of this? j. - c. t. you are exaggerating the increase in the cost of a loaf or an espresso on 1 january 2002! in some economies, the idea that the euro is inflationary remains rooted in the collective consciousness because, at the time of the changeover to the single currency,

“ proto - accountants ” created the first documents in human history and paved the way for all of the world ’ s written literature. secondly, there is a relationship between poetry and money which has always struck me. poems, like gold coins, are meant to last, to keep their integrity, sustained by their rhythm, rhymes and metaphors. in that sense, they are like money – they are a “ store of value ” over the long term. they are both aspiring to inalterability, whilst they are both destined to circulate from hand to hand and from mind to mind. and thirdly, both culture and money, poems and coins belong to the people. our currency belongs to the people of europe in a very deep sense : it is their own confidence in their currency which makes it a successful medium of exchange, unit of account and store of value. our culture is the wealth of literature and art that the confidence of the people has decided to select and preserve over time. today, i would like to reflect on europe ’ s cultural identity first by exploring a central concept, a spiritual core ; then i ’ ll review the remarkable diversity of its national cultures ; and finally i ’ ll consider how european cultural identity aspires to universality. ii. the search for a central concept in europe ’ s cultural identity one way of shedding light on the cultural identity of europe is to search for a central concept, a “ heart ” of europe, which would simultaneously be both its source and summary. two references are particularly enlightening in this respect : the vision of paul valery, the poet and essayist, and that of edmund husserl, the philosopher. paul valery, in his essay “ the european ” [ “ l ’ europeen ” ], wrote in 1924 : “ partout ou les noms de cesar, de gaius, de trajan et de virgile, partout ou les noms de moise et de st paul, partout ou les noms d ’ aristote, de platon et d ’ euclide ont eu une signification et une autorite simultanees, la est l ’ europe. ” translated into english, this means : “ wherever the names caesar, gaius, trajan and virgil, wherever the names moses and st. paul, wherever the names aristotle, plato and euclid have a significance and carry weight, that is where europe is. ” valery insists on the spiritual character