EMU also has implications for policy fields beyond those explicitly related to the management of the single currency. The interdependencies generated and reinforced by the introduction of the euro entail a shared responsibility for the common currency on the part of all euro area Member States. Inappropriate policy choices in one country can have an immediate impact on the common currency, for example, via the exchange rate. For the euro to be a lasting success – and to win the support of all citizens – national policymakers, businesses and trade unions will have to adapt to the conditions of a single currency. Even though this will be a gradual process, facing up to the challenges of the single currency will demand a steep learning curve for all involved. Allow me to elaborate: the European Central Bank as the single monetary authority within the euro area will have to build up and maintain a “stability culture” among the politicians and peoples of Europe. This is no easy task, despite all our efforts to explain monetary policy decisions to the public. 1  BIS Review 93/1999  Most importantly, the ECB must communicate the fundamental nature of, and justification for, its Treaty mandate to maintain price stability, not least since certain misperceptions of the goals and effects of monetary policy continue to exist. It will only be possible to fully gain the crucial support of the public for the new and so far untested currency if the ECB manages to retain its value over time.
The ECB is a novel and unique institution and in the performance of its tasks it is still navigating uncharted waters. Take, for example, the differing impact of monetary policy on economic activity in the different euro area Member States, which demands a well-balanced and comprehensive consideration of the precise timing and magnitude of interest rate decisions. The ECB must formulate a single monetary policy for an economic area made up of 11 distinct national economic policy jurisdictions. Our monetary policy decisions must thus always be oriented towards the conditions of this currency zone as a whole, since monetary policy by its nature is one and indivisible. Precisely this is our Treaty mandate. The ECB must develop into a truly European institution and we are making good progress in that direction. However, developing a wider perception of the euro area as an entity appears more complicated. Certainly, there are some areas where awareness of a single “euro area economy” is well developed. The financial market operators, for instance, appear to have adapted very quickly to the reality of the euro. The extensive recourse to the more favourable financing opportunities in the now more unified financial market or the ongoing consolidation in the banking sector bear witness to this shift of perception from the national to the European level. In this context, allow me to add the following observation.