Jörg Asmussen: Agenda 2013 – the next steps in completing EMU Speech by Mr Jörg Asmussen, Member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank, at the “Internationaler Club Frankfurter Wirtschaftsjournalisten”, Frankfurt am Main, 19 December 2012. * 1. *  *  Introduction  Ladies and gentlemen, Thank you very much for inviting me to speak to you this evening.
It is now almost one year since I started my term in the ECB Executive Board, and it is interesting to reflect on how Europe has changed in that time. When I joined the ECB in January, the situation looked bleak. The first 3 year LTRO had temporarily calmed the markets, but many informed commentators were predicting a very difficult year ahead.