The hearings in your Committee are naturally the cornerstone of the ECB’s Treaty-based accountability obligations.
But they are more than that: beyond monetary policy stricto sensu, they have allowed two genuine European institutions – two institutions that only have the  BIS central bankers’ speeches  3  whole in mind and not just the parts – to have a continuous dialogue on a number of issues of great relevance for the smooth functioning of the single market of the European Union and of EMU.