jean - claude trichet : interview with the “ junge zeitung ” of the frankfurter neue presse interview with mr jean - claude trichet, president of the european central bank, conducted by a group of pupils in the framework of the project “ junge zeitung ” of the frankfurter neue presse on 8 september 2009 and published on 12 september 2009. * * * mr. president, as “ mr. euro ” : how many euros do you have in your wallet? not many. ( counts ) i have 50 euro in 20, 10 and 5 euro notes und 4. 50 in euro coins. i think i don ’ t need more today. in your opinion : how important is the euro for europe? the euro is extremely important for europe. if you go back to the vision of the founding fathers of europe, more than 50 years ago : they wanted to establish a common market, what we would call now a single market for our continent. an achieved single market also calls for a single currency. what would be the single market of the united states of america if they had different currencies in florida, california, and massachusetts? the euro is also the powerful symbol of our european unity. what do you like about the germans – and what not? i have known a number of german friends for a very long period of time. i had the privilege to work very closely with my friends hans tietmeyer, karl - otto pohl and helmut schlesinger. i had an extremely good relationship with president kohler, when he and i were both staatssekretar in our respective countries and were negotiating the maastricht treaty. and working with otmar issing and jurgen stark to the success of the euro has also been a great privilege. as you see, amongst many others, german friends with whom we have worked actively for the success of the european endeavour. and i have always appreciated the capacity of the german culture and the german public opinion to support sound and reasonable monetary and economic policies over the last 60 years. what i perhaps like a little less is the level of anxiety, of “ angst ”, which exists. that is sometimes too high and doesn ’ t fit, in my opinion, to the kind of qualities that the german culture has. do you still learn the german language? yes. ( wieder deutsch ) ich lerne deutsch, aber es ist schwierig, und

impressive. i ’ ve been associated very closely to the construction of europe, particularly to the strategy of my own country towards monetary and fiscal stability and structural reforms. when we decided to start this strategy – which i call the “ competitive disinflation strategy ” – in 19821983 it was a very moving moment. i experienced also very tense moments in the 80 ’ s and the 90 ’ s as president of the paris club for rescheduling the debts of the developing and emerging countries. i presided over the rescheduling of the debt of brazil, of poland, of egypt, of soviet union. finally i participated actively in the maastricht treaty negotiation. when it was decided by the heads of states and governments that we will start the euro no later than january, 1999, it was a moving historical moment. and more recently when on the 9th of august 2007 the executive board of the ecb had to take bold decisions to cope with the start of the turbulences on the money market that was also an important moment. ( anmerkung der red. : die ezb pumpte zu diesem datum in bis dahin nicht gekanntem umfang liquiditat in den markt und war damit die weltweit erste notenbank, die auf die krise reagierte. ) do you personally still convert to franc? no. do you understand the germans sometimes still regret the loss of their old d - mark? the promise which was made to all nationalities, and in particular to the germans before the euro started was the following : the new currency will be at least as confidence - inspiring and as a good store of value as the previous national one. and i can say today to you : the promise has been met. the euro, which is now almost eleven years old, is as good a currency, as solid and stable as was the dm.