second pillar is intended to reveal this information, giving policymakers greater insight into shorter - run price dynamics and their implications for monetary policy. monetary policymaking in the euro area has to reflect the complexities and uncertainties which surround the transmission mechanism of monetary policy in a wholly new economic entity. these uncertainties imply that no single approach is likely to be entirely reliable. the inherent uncertainty faced by the central bank cannot simply be wished away. reliance on a single indicator or forecast, or a single model of the economy or view of the world, would, in these circumstances, be extremely unwise. the strategy needs to incorporate the full range of relevant indicators and assess them in the context of a variety of different models. in this respect, the two pillars complement one another. they allow for a structured cross - checking of the evidence and analysis underlying policy decisions, encompass all information and allow for various views of the structure of the economy. the academic literature and other external commentators are slowly coming to recognise the importance of “ robustness ” in monetary policymaking - something which i believe has been understood by central bankers for some time. a successful monetary policy is not one that performs “ optimally ” in the context of a specific model or given a particular view of the world. in the light of our limited understanding of how the economy works, no single model is reliable enough. rather given the great uncertainty faced by central banks - a successful monetary policy should perform well in a broad range of possible situations and across a variety of models or views of the world, each one of which may capture important aspects of actual economic behaviour or may, ex post, turn out to be close to reality. monetary policymaking is therefore complex. the two - pillar strategy chosen by the eurosystem where these pillars represent distinct, yet complementary, approaches - captures this complexity in an honest and genuinely transparent manner. this naturally brings me to transparency - a topic of considerable and ongoing debate in the euro area. in my view, the transparency of the monetary policy process is best understood as the extent to which the external, presentational role of the strategy is consistent with the internal, decision - making procedure. as a party to both the decision - making and the presentation of the single monetary policy, i can assure you that the correspondence between the internal and external aspects of the eurosystem ’ s strategy is extremely close. discussions in the governing council take into account, on the one hand, an analysis of monetary developments and their implications for monetary

policy offered an opportunity to design the operational framework afresh, ensuring that best practice was adopted throughout the euro area. the resulting framework provides for a broad set of instruments and procedures to implement monetary policy. thus far, this framework has worked very effectively in clearly signalling the stance of monetary policy and containing the volatility of short - term market interest rates. at the heart of the framework is the so - called “ corridor ” for the overnight market interest rate, which is defined by the interest rates on the deposit and marginal lending facilities. with the help of the minimum reserve system, the behaviour of the market rate within this corridor is smoothed, without recourse to fine - tuning interventions by the authorities that might be prejudicial to the market orientation of the system. with these features, the ecb has a very simple but probably also one of the most modern operational frameworks in the world. concluding remarks earlier this month i participated in a celebration of the 150th anniversary of the nationale bank van belgie / banque nationale de belgique. today we celebrate the banque de france ’ s bicentenary. it would have been extremely foolish if the eurosystem had not exploited the accumulated wisdom and experience gained from the long and distinguished history of these institutions and those of the other ncbs. as i have argued today, both the eurosystem ’ s strategy and its operational framework have exploited this wisdom to the full, while recognising the new and different challenges faced by the single monetary policy in the euro area. let me therefore finish by again congratulating the bank on its bicentenary, by expressing my gratitude to all those who have dedicated their time and effort to the achievement of monetary union and, finally, by wishing the bank another 200 successful years - and more - as an important and vital component of the eurosystem.