*  *  *  Madam Chair, Honourable members of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, It is a great pleasure to present to you the European Central Bank’s Annual Report for 2010 which forms a core part of our accountability towards the European Parliament.
It is the first time for me to appear before your Committee in my capacity as the Vice-President of the ECB and I am looking forward to an enriching exchange of views. I will first briefly review the economic and monetary developments over the past year, explain our monetary policy decisions, and summarise our current assessment of the macroeconomic outlook.