Do you have the impression that the Heads of Government have understood what is at stake? I believe they are conscious of their extraordinary responsibility. They all have to make decisions in the context of democracies which, in the advanced economies, are very inwardlooking, which is a real problem at the time of the worst global crisis for the last 66 years. What will happen if the European Heads of Government do not get the crisis under control? My working assumption is that the Heads of State and Government will overcome the crisis. Europe must realign its fiscal policy, as other large developed economies must also do. This year, at 10%, the deficits in the United States and Japan will be around twice as high as in the euro area on a consolidated basis. In spite of this, Europe is the epicentre of the government debt crisis. The reason for this is the mutual dependence of the 17 euro area countries. This is why it is so important that every euro area country plays by the rules. A few days ago in the European Parliament, I quoted what I told the Members of the Parliament in my first hearings, eight years ago, four years before the crisis, concerning the absolute necessity to stick to the Stability and Growth Pact. At your Governing Council meeting last week you reactivated all the crisis instruments. Is the euro in serious danger? The euro as a currency is evidently not in danger.
And we are totally devoted to our primary Treaty mandate of price stability. We have delivered price stability over 13 years with an annual inflation rate of 2.0% for the euro area as a whole and 1.55% for Germany. This is better than any time over the previous 50 years. For the last four years we have been experiencing the worst global crisis since World War II, and not surprisingly it is hampering our monetary policy transmission. That is why we have had to take some non-standard measures but with caution and prudence. With our decisions since the outbreak of the crisis, we have reacted appropriately to the market failures in the financial markets. We have lived up to our responsibilities. The two German members of the ECB’s Governing Council, Axel Weber and Jürgen Stark, both resigned because they could no longer support the buying up of government bonds. Jürgen is a very good European and a very close friend. Over the last 18 years he has been closely involved in the European construction and European unity. He has been an outstanding ECB Chief Economist. He is one of the greatest champions of the European Union that I know. When, after serving the euro for many years, such a person, who has been totally loyal to the institution, announces his resignation for personal reasons, one has to fully respect his decision. According to opinion polls, a majority of Germans now want the Deutsche Mark back.