However, Walter Hallstein, the first President of the European Commission, apparently had a special kind of realist in mind when he said: “Whoever does not believe in miracles in European matters is not a realist.” I will come back to this at the end of my speech. 2. European unification  Ladies and gentlemen, A united Europe is of major significance to Germany.
As the hiking cycle is progressing further, the ECB Governing Council will need to find the right balance between two risks: the risk of stopping too early before the “job is done”, which could cause inflation to remain persistently elevated and entrenched in price and wage setting processes, and that of overtightening monetary conditions, which would result in significant repercussions for economic activity, financial stability and, ultimately, medium-term price developments.