And I told them that the people of Europe were very fortunate that they had performed this task so well, as had all other colleagues in the euro area. What did the introduction of the euro mean to you personally? I can tell you that I was full of pride on that day.
I had been in favour of the creation of the euro for a long time. In the early 1990s I had negotiated, on behalf of the French Government, the Maastricht Treaty regarding the creation of the currency union; and it was an honour to negotiate with Horst Köhler, then German Staatssekretär and now President of the Federal Republic of Germany.