budget – and who decides that – will you start a new plan or stay in the current premises? we are responsible for public money. the governing council is the body which decides on the proposal made by the executive board. we are examining the situation in view of optimizing the present situation without altering our cost estimates. 33. would you be surprised and accept it if the political leaders decided to change the ecb ’ s mandate to a dual one, with price stability and growth? that is a highly theoretical question. we have a primary mandate enshrined in a treaty which has been negotiated, signed and ratified – either by parliaments or by the people – by 27 exemplary democracies, 25 without an opting - out clause. this is the mandate that was given to us by our fellow citizens! the people of europe gave us this mandate because they rightly trust that price stability is a prerequisite for sustainable growth and job creation so that there is no contradiction but complementarity between the two. 34. given that mandate, do you think all the political leaders are helping you by explaining exactly your mission to their fellow citizens? would you expect more help from some leaders? we are fifteen countries today in the euro area and sixteen as soon as next year. one very important message for our 320 million fellow citizens is : “ we share a destiny in common! ” i see more and more political leaders and opinion leaders aware of the necessity of this message. 35. what answer do you have to pressures for instance from mr. sarkozy or mr. berlusconi? let me make three remarks. first, the ecb is fiercely independent. and the treaty says, very explicitly that governments shall not try to influence the governing council of the ecb. this independence is key to our credibility, which is in turn essential for confidence in europe. and confidence is our most precious asset, as i said. second, the most vulnerable and poorest of my fellow citizens have the biggest stake in price stability which is now the main concern of all according to the surveys. third, as regards the organisation of the relationship with authorities, whether government or parliament, we have probably the best organised and the most frequent relationships that exist at the global level. this is not sufficiently known. i invite the president of the eurogroup jean - claude juncker and the commissioner joaquin almunia to all our meetings twice a month. i am invited to all eurogroup meetings once every

how to improve the behaviour of commercial banks. in any case, much more transparency of the institutions, the instruments and of the market will be necessary. that is not only because when pertinent information is available, the economic agents can make better decisions and engineer a better allocation of capital – but also because transparency is an important protection against “ herd behaviour ” and the propagation of any crisis. one of the lessons we learned from the asian crisis ten years ago was the strong need to improve transparency in the emerging economies as regards in particular their reserve assets and their monetary and fiscal policies. in the financial markets of the industrialised world we have exactly the same lessons to be learned. 29. how healthy is the banking system in europe? some argue that some banks, namely the spanish ones, are too addicted to the ecb ’ s lending and collateral policy, a signal of little health? since the very beginning of the market turmoil we had a framework which proved to be more adapted to the unforeseen new environment that was associated with the financial turbulences. our framework appeared as an interesting example for other central banks that had to change their own framework. we are permanently examining and applying our rules with great care. if it would be useful to refine elements in our scheme, as we did in the past, two and four years ago, we would do it. 30. so you don ’ t think the banks are too dependent on your instruments? we have a framework that has proved to serve us well and we are caring continuously for it to be correctly applied. 31. do you think the irish no to the lisbon treaty has any impact on the euro area or on the ecb ’ s behaviour? as the president of the ecb, i would like to say that the lisbon treaty does not affect the emu framework and therefore the present difficulty of ratification does not affect in any respect our work. we have a very clear policy objective – price stability in the medium term – and a very inspiring road map : achieving the integration of the single market with a single currency and progressively enlarging the euro area according to the criteria of the treaty of maastricht. as a citizen, i hope very much, and i am confident, that we will find a way to overcome the current difficulties. 32. you shelved plans for the ecb headquarters. your budget was 500 million euro, but the promoter wanted 1, 2 billion. what are the plans ahead : will you increase the