A key ingredient for this success, on top of their independence, was  2  BIS Review 87/2009  an explicit monetary policy strategy. In the case of the Bundesbank, this included a mediumterm policy orientation, the importance attached to monetary developments, and an element of rule-based behaviour in policy determination. These lessons of history were shared all over Europe.
I was the Governor of the Banque de France when its independence was granted in January 1994, five years before the euro. As soon as independence was granted to the 200-year-old institution, we defined price stability as an inflation rate below 2% over the medium term.