As the European Central Bank is close to completing its first decade of existence and the euro will soon be ten years old, I would like to take this opportunity to pay a tribute to all those who contributed to this great achievement. The introduction of the euro has been recognised as a remarkable success.
Since 1999 the single currency has fully inherited the degree of credibility and confidence that was the privilege of the most credible national currencies before the euro. This has been in particular illustrated by the fact that the medium and long term euro market interest rates were at the same low level as the level observed for the most credible previous national currencies.