when capital is seeking safe havens. the central bank must act to counter such effects when the transmission of monetary policy to the real economy is at risk. one week ago, ecb president christine lagarde said that the ecb isn ’ t responsible for closing risk premia on government bonds. did that create additional uncertainty? the markets were questioning whether the ecb continued to stand ready to do everything necessary to stabilise the situation. but that was never in any doubt. and then the situation in the markets deteriorated rapidly, so we had to take further action. are there any rules at all now for such asset purchases, or does the ecb just do what it 1 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches likes? our purchase programmes are rules - based. we continue in principle to buy bonds in line with the capital share of each country. but we need more flexibility now, over time as well as across countries and asset classes, in order to tackle the situation appropriately. would you have liked to go into this crisis with higher interest rates, so that you could cut rates now? interest rates have been set appropriately also in recent years. higher interest rates were not an option – otherwise we wouldn ’ t have been able to fulfil our price stability mandate and we would have damaged the economy. i know very few economists who are of a different view. some people are already calling for signals to hike interest rates once the crisis is over. your newspaper featured a guest commentary last week on the subject. in view of the current situation, that article seems a little out of place. we are looking at what might well be one of the worst economic crises of all time. it seems inappropriate to be talking about raising interest rates now. the authors of that piece were talking about the period after the crisis. we should talk about what happens after the crisis at a later date. for now we need to concentrate on mitigating the effects of this crisis. yes, but one does get the impression that every crisis sees the introduction of new measures which then can ’ t really be unwound afterwards, and then central banks have to come up with something bigger and better in the next crisis. is that the right way forward? the new package is proportionate to the situation. it will only run until we have overcome this crisis. your question also seems to suggest that we need to return to the former style of monetary policy, that is before the ecb began to purchase bonds. but that

mario draghi : responsible leadership in times of crisis address by mr mario draghi, president of the european central bank, on the occasion of receiving the esmt ( european school of management and technology ) leadership award 2013, berlin, 13 june 2013. * * * good afternoon. it is a great honour to receive this award for responsible leadership and i would like to thank mario monti for his kind introductory words. i regret that i am not able to join you in person today in berlin but am pleased i can address you via video. the fact we have a single currency and a european central bank is itself testament to the role of leadership. many of you are too young to remember, but those of us who can recall europe 20 years ago know how unimaginable it once was to speak about a single currency. today, it is an integral part of our lives. but as this award reminds us, the key aspect of leadership is responsibility. in the words of peter drucker, “ rank does not confer privilege or give power. it imposes responsibility ”. as you know, the primary responsibility of the ecb is to maintain price stability in the euro area – to secure the value of our common currency. we take this responsibility with the utmost seriousness as it directly affects the lives of 330 million citizens of the euro area. since the launch of the euro in 1999, we have fulfilled our mandate even through difficult times. we will continue to fulfil this task. i am very proud to be personally contributing to the historic project that the euro represents as the most tangible sign of european integration. but this pride is accompanied by a deep feeling of responsibility. there is no doubt that the recent period of economic and financial turbulence has tested us in new ways. we have had to take new measures to fulfil our responsibility for price stability. we had to look at all the data, assess all the evidence, and decide what measures were necessary to ensure the stability of the euro. one such decision was to combat market fragmentation by outright monetary transactions ( omt ), based on a country committing itself to strict and effective conditionality under an eu / imf economic adjustment programme. at almost one year from its announcement, the benefits of omt are visible to everybody : banks have been able to re - access the market, for both funding and for raising capital, and the strong divergence in funding costs across constituencies has receded. deposits have flown back : banks in stressed countries