The Duitsland Instituut’s mission is to increase knowledge of Germany and disseminate this knowledge to a wide audience in the Netherlands. I am glad to join in this effort today, though I will confine myself to the Bundesbank’s take on matters of the Economic and Monetary Union.
Adding more issues to that would probably constitute an overburdening of the monetary policymaker you see before you. And overburdening monetary policy is of course anathema to the Bundesbank. To me, it seems particularly befitting to talk about the challenges of the intricate construction that is our monetary union here in Amsterdam.