We know that we are not completely out of the woods. So what’s next? With the establishment of the ECB in June 1998 and the launch of the euro on 1 January 1999 monetary policy was centralised. Responsibility for the euro was entrusted to a strong and independent central bank. The ECB has fulfilled its primary objective of price stability.
Fiscal policy, economic policies and supervision, however, have remained at national level. BIS central bankers’ speeches  3  As this architecture has proved to be flawed, the respective Presidents of the European Council (Herman Van Rompuy), the European Commission (José Manuel Barroso), the Eurogroup (then Jean-Claude Juncker) and the ECB (Mario Draghi) drew up what is known as the “Four Presidents’ Report”.