Crucial for this development was the exchange rate commitment of the Bundesbank under the Bretton Woods system and its resulting inability to regain control over monetary and credit expansion. After the Bretton Woods system the Bundesbank regained control over domestic monetary expansion. Its monetary policy framework was reviewed and adjusted. Eventually this led to a clear assignment of policy goals and instruments.
Let me conclude. What we have achieved in terms of the architecture of the BU is astonishing but the entire project remains fragile. Europe has stopped moving and currently stands in the middle of a very sensitive and unstable ‘bridge’.