•  It is shielding from pressures arising from national authorities;  •  It allows continuous, multilateral check of time consistency and policy direction within the Council, thus imposing a discipline on monetary policy and  •  It is countering any public suspicion that national bias may inform policy decisions.
I think this approach has been a key element in the efficient functioning of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank up to now. It is representative of an European culture of decision-making which has served us well until now. Therefore I think it ought also to be pursued in the perspective of accession countries adopting the euro in the medium term.