Jean-Claude Trichet: Presentation of the European Central Bank’s Annual Report for 2003 Introductory statement by Mr Jean-Claude Trichet, President of the European Central Bank, to the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs of the European Parliament, Brussels, 27 April 2004.
*  *  *  In four days' time the EU will witness the most significant enlargement in its history when some 75 million people from ten central and eastern European and Mediterranean countries join the European Union. The importance of this enlargement goes beyond considerations of size. Its significance lies in its political message.