jens weidmann : academic colloquium in honour of prof. dr. dr. h. c. mult. otmar issing video message by dr jens weidmann, president of the deutsche bundesbank and chair of the board of directors of the bank for international settlements, at the center for financial studies ( cfs ) in cooperation with the leibniz institute safe, virtual, 29 june 2021. * * * 1 introduction it is a great pleasure for me to speak at this academic colloquium in your honour, celebrating your 85th birthday. i would have very much liked to offer my congratulations to you in person, but unfortunately this is not possible due to my commitments at the bis. paying tribute to such an outstanding central banker, academic, and personal friend such as yourself, otmar, within the space of just five minutes, is an almost impossible task. 2 lifetime achievement there is no question that you are one of the most renowned central bankers of our time – and rightly so. last year, the “ central banking ” magazine honoured you for your lifetime achievement. and, indeed, you have achieved so much over the course of your career. you have shaped the landscape of monetary policy in europe like few others. to this day, the bundesbank and the ecb are still reaping the benefits of your legacy. it was your initiative, for example, that led to the creation of the research group that essentially formed the nucleus of the bundesbank ’ s research centre today. without a doubt, the greatest distinction of your career is that you successfully guided the then brand new ecb as its chief economist. you played a key role in building up the ecb ’ s credibility and reputation as an institution focused on maintaining price stability. your master stroke was the formulation of the ecb ’ s stability - oriented monetary policy strategy. together with your team, you created this strategy from the ground up in 1998, amidst an environment of high uncertainty and within a very short period of time. while it is commonly referred to as the “ two - pillar strategy ”, it actually contained three important elements : a quantitative definition of price stability oriented to the medium term, a prominent role for money, and a broadly based assessment of the outlook for price developments. you also oversaw the review of the strategy in 2003. in essence, the strategy was reaffirmed with just a somewhat less prominent role for money and a clarified policy aim. i believe you

##cies. see aguilar garcia, e., alloza frutos, m., mata, t. d. l., moral benito, e., portillo - pampin i., and d. sarasa - flores ( 2023 ). una primera caracterizacion de las empresas receptoras de fondos ngeu en espana. documentos ocasiones, 2321, banco de espana. see giovanni, j. d., garcia - santana, m., jeenas, p., moral benito, e. and j. pijoan mas ( 2022 ). buy big or buy small? procurement policies, firms'financing and the macroeconomy. documentos de trabajo, 2233, banco de espana. see fernandez - cerezo, a., moral - benito, e. and j. quintana ( 2024 ). “ on the macroeconomic impact of ngeu funds and its propagation through the production network ”. economic modelling, vol. 132. third, the transformative impact of the rrf funds ultimately hinges on selecting projects that can increase spain ’ s productive capacity. these projects should have a strong innovation component and a high degree of complementarity with private investment. 7 summing up, designing and implementing the ngeu programme is a significant challenge for the public sector. both short - term growth and the medium and longterm growth potential of the spanish economy will largely depend on the ability to effectively and efficiently manage the large volume of ngeu funds coming into spain. critical to achieving this is the rigorous selection of projects, along with a realtime assessment process in place to allow possible shortcomings to be identified and remedied as they arise, in both procedural issues and funded projects. the enormous complexity underlying the management of these funds demands a great deal of transparency so that the process ultimately strengthens people ’ s trust in their institutions. see dominguez - diaz, r., hurtado, s. and c. menendez ( 2024 ). the medium - term effects of investment stimulus. documentos de trabajo, 2402, banco de espana