At its anniversary three years ago, Ewald Nowotny stated: “Yet, irrespective of the challenges the Nationalbank faced at different moments of its 200-year history, the overarching principles of its policy were always the same: the quest for stability, built on trust in the Nationalbank, which in turn is fundamentally linked to its independence.”7 It is also the shared quest for price stability that unites the members of the ECB Governing Council.
I was sorry to note the resignation of Sabine Lautenschläger last week. Her voice was also an asset to the Council and will be missed. The diversity of opinions and perspectives on the Council was always a strength, not a weakness. “United in diversity” is more than just the motto of the European Union, which may seem abstract to many.