Jean-Claude Trichet: A few remarks on communication by central banks Keynote address by Mr Jean-Claude Trichet, President of the European Central Bank, at the 25th HORIZONT Award Ceremony, Frankfurt am Main, 16 January 2008. *  *  *  Ladies and gentlemen, It is with great pleasure that I have accepted the invitation from HORIZONT on the occasion of the 25th anniversary award ceremony. I am honoured to see so many distinguished guests from the German media and communications industry in the audience. The longstanding tradition that this event enjoys demonstrates that media and communications play an important role in all aspects of modern societies, including, though perhaps more recently, that of monetary policy. In today’s address, I should like to talk about the challenges facing central bank communication, from a central banker’s perspective. International, and, in particular, European media and many other intermediaries play a decisive role in the process of disseminating information about the ECB’s monetary policy. Media coverage of monetary policy actions is an important channel of the ECB’s communication strategy, and thus an important factor for our policy’s success. In the euro area, currently comprising 15 member countries (with the accession of Cyprus and Malta on 1 January 2008) and beyond, national media have retained their important role in making the central bank’s actions and its objectives understood by national audiences. In my address, I will first elaborate on how central banks in general communicate, and then explain how the ECB addresses its audience.
Establishing an effective communication policy was particularly important for a young institution that did not have its own track record, as was the case when the ECB started its operations in 1999. The ECB operates in a multilingual and multicultural environment. We have to address a significant number of audiences in each culture, the general public, opinion leaders, social partners, financial markets and, of course, the media as our partners who are key in the process of transmission of our messages to the audiences. These groups have different expectations with regard to the quantity and nature of our communications. For our communication policy to be effective, we have to make sure that our messages are transmitted in a consistent and timely manner throughout the euro area, and that there is an equal treatment of media across countries. In the presence of 23 official languages in the European Union and 13 official languages in the euro area, it is very important to ensure that the very same message is conveyed to citizens in all countries, and that appropriate translations are made. In addition to providing these translations of the ECB’s official communications in all languages spoken by the euro area countries, a number of channels are used to ensure full respect of the single voice principle. The Eurosystem-wide external communication activities of the national central banks are coordinated by the ECB. Due consideration has been given to the different cultures of communication existing in the euro area.