There is only one, single monetary policy for the euro area as a whole. Therefore, the ECB should develop into a truly European institution. This is a process that will inevitably take some time, but my feeling is that we are already making good progress. The execution of monetary policy is to a great extent decentralised.
Since the pandemic arrived in force just two months ago, more than 20 million people have lost their jobs, reversing nearly 10 years of job gains. This precipitous drop in economic activity has caused a level of pain that is hard to capture in words, as lives are upended amid great uncertainty about the future.