a century now is due to its efficient way of dealing with sovereign debt restructuring by combining pragmatism with a strict set of principles to be implemented when working out agreements on debt restructuring. first, making decisions on a case - by - case basis allows paris club creditors to tailor their actions to the individual situation in each debtor country. such an approach reflects a spirit of permanent adaptation to new financial problems and difficulties faced by rescheduling countries. second, paris club treatments are agreed by consensus by all participating creditor countries. third, creditor countries apply the principle of conditionality, whereby debt treatments are granted to countries only if they need debt relief and implement appropriate reforms to resolve their payment difficulties in the context of an imf programme. fourth, the principle of solidarity commits every paris club creditor, in its conclusion of individual bilateral agreements, to respect the terms agreed upon in the joint negotiation. last but not least, the paris club attaches great value to comparability of treatment of all creditors. by insisting that a debtor country should not accept less favourable terms from another creditor than those agreed by consensus within the paris club, it is ensured that its taxpayers ’ claims are not subordinated to those of other creditors and that their financial interests are preserved. moreover, applying such a clause provides a guarantee that the agreed debt treatment reaches its intended goal of putting debtor countries ’ debt burdens on a sustainable footing. keeping these principles in mind, what have been the main concrete achievements of the paris club? the first paris club restructuring took place, as mentioned, in 1956, when argentina and its official creditors agreed to reschedule payments due on officially supported credits. at that time, the club had no formal rules or procedures and was only intended to provide pragmatic responses to specific problems. until 1980, paris club creditors on average signed no more than four agreements per year, applying the standard “ classic terms ”, whereby credits were rescheduled at the appropriate market rate. during these early years of the paris club, negotiations and agreements were more and more standardised, preparing this forum for the busy times that were to come. i remember well those years of intense negotiations and the overall activities of the club. i remember well the members of the club at the time and i see some of them here in this room. to you i would like to express all my friendship and gratitude. we had intense discussions but it was always possible to find solutions because the members of the

it is true that, when the euro was introduced, a few sectors in some european economies tried to take advantage of the changeover to increase certain prices abnormally. this led to an average rise of around 0. 2 % at the time of the changeover. in the case of france, christian noyer explained this phenomenon, which is insignificant in the life of the euro thus far, outstandingly well. it has become clear that we have done what has been necessary to guarantee price stability in the euro area. we will have very low inflation for some months in the course of 2009, and i already predict some people saying to us that it will be too low! this is a result of the fall in oil prices, as it was the high inflation in 2008 which resulted from their rise. le figaro magazine : the euro celebrated its ten - year anniversary on 1 january 2009. without it, where would we be? jean - claude trichet : the euro is evidently an advantage for those democracies that have chosen to adopt it. it has proven its stability, its resistance to shocks and its resilience in the face of financial and economic turmoil. once again, i would say, as we have faced many tests over the last ten years : the bursting of the internet bubble, the asian crisis, the raw materials and oil price shock... in ten years, the euro has been a key factor in achieving the single european market and has provided a shield against international turmoil. le figaro magazine : is the euro, therefore, a total success? jean - claude trichet : it is a big success. we have given european citizens a single currency which is in line with what was promised : a currency which retains its value, which inspires confidence, a stable currency, at least as stable as the legacy currencies. ten years ago, many believed this promise could not be fulfilled. le figaro magazine : in terms of job creation, has the euro kept its promise? jean - claude trichet : it is not correct to say, as some have done, that the euro has acted against job creation. on the contrary, in the first ten years of the euro, the number of people in work increased by approximately 16 million, which is at least 3 million more than in the usa in the same period. we have also created many more jobs than we did in the decades preceding the euro, in europe as well as in france. le figaro magazine : can