a positive interrelationship between higher employment and sound public finance. in that respect, denmark is a model for us in germany. our country is at present in the process of rethinking, and facing up to these difficult challenges. that is not a simple matter, especially as the structural inflexibilities existing in germany have arisen over a long period. our own adjustments are all the more important, seeing that we shall have to cope with the economic implications of german reunification for some considerable time to come. it is my hope and wish that we shall soon be able to make the progress that is needed, and achieve positive results. that will undoubtedly be the case if we follow the path taken by our neighbours in the north and north - west. at all events, the netherlands and denmark are setting important signposts, not only for us in germany, but also for the road to emu and beyond.

yves mersch : in the spirit of european cooperation introductory remarks by mr yves mersch, member of the executive board of the european central bank and vice - chair of the supervisory board of the european central bank, at the salzburg global webinar, 2 july 2020. * * * the judgment of the german federal constitutional court on the ecb ’ s public sector purchase programme ( pspp ) is a reminder of the confederal nature of the european union. the judges themselves noted that “ certain tensions are [ … ] inherent in the design of the european union ; they must be resolved in a cooperative manner, in keeping with the spirit of european integration, and mitigated through mutual respect and understanding. ” 1 in this spirit, the ecb – which is exclusively subject to the jurisdiction of the court of justice of the european union and accountable to the european parliament – supports the deutsche bundesbank in its cooperation with the german federal government and the bundestag. the constitutional court is of the view that the federal government and the bundestag have a duty to ascertain that an assessment is conducted in relation to the proportionality of the pspp. bundesbank president jens weidmann thus recently requested that the ecb authorise the disclosure of a number of documents to those to whom the judgment is directed, namely the federal government, which may then share these documents with the bundestag if necessary. we authorised the disclosure of these documents on the condition that their non - public elements are treated confidentially. in 2018 the court of justice ruled unambiguously and finally on the legality of the ecb ’ s asset purchases. it also found that the ecb provided sufficient proportionality considerations. 2 the ecb ’ s governing council constantly evaluates the potential side effects of its monetary policy measures – including the pspp. this evaluation is part of the proportionality assessment underpinning the ecb ’ s policy choices and is publicly available. you can get an idea of what i am referring to from our latest accounts3 ( published last week ), which show the depth and comprehensiveness of the governing council ’ s discussions, including on the effectiveness, efficiency and potential side effects of our monetary policy decisions. this public evidence demonstrates that we take the potential risks and side effects of our decisions very seriously. and it should help with more balanced communication of our decisions in all countries, including germany. the german authorities have access to the answers to the 43 questions we received