They shared with me the joys of running their own businesses, of creating jobs, and of providing for their families as well as creating opportunities for their employees. They also spoke of their challenges, which I’m sure are familiar to many of you in this room.
To illustrate this clear monetary policy orientation of OMTs, let me briefly recall the situation on the European capital markets in summer 2012. Fears that the monetary union could break up had led to severe tensions on those markets. The government bond market was particularly hard hit. Risk premia for both long-term and short-term government bonds of some Member States reached unusually high levels.