Jean-Claude Trichet: Interview with Die Zeit Interview with Mr Jean-Claude Trichet, President of the European Central Bank, and Die Zeit conducted by Mr Marc Brost and Mr Robert von Heusinger, 23 July 2007. *  *  *  DIE ZEIT: Monsieur le President, fifty years ago the German Bundestag created the Bundesbank, one of Germany's best-known brands in the world. What is its legacy? Trichet: Monetary stability. Independence. Credibility. These principles are very favourable for sustained growth and job creation. Today it's globally recognized that this is the right way for monetary policy to deliver price stability and, by way of consequence, sustainable growth. DIE ZEIT: What do you admire most in the history of the Bundesbank? Trichet: One of the most impressive episodes has been the open conflict with Chancellor Konrad Adenauer who wanted the Bundesbank to decrease interest rates. But the Bank refused. It proved to be really independent. DIE ZEIT: That was 1956. Long ago. Trichet: Yes, but at the beginning of 2004 shortly after I became President of the ECB, three heads of member states asked publicly to lower rates: The Bundeskanzler of Germany, Gerhard Schröder, the President of the French Republic, Jacques Chirac and the Prime Minister of Italy, Silvio Berlusconi. The ECB demonstrated its independence. We did not comply. DIE ZEIT: Which personal episode with the Bundesbank do you cherish? Trichet: For me the whole history of the euro has an important personal touch with German friends in the administration and in the Bundesbank.
In the time of the preparation of the Treaty I worked with many German friends, for example the Bundesbank Presidents KarlOtto Pöhl, Helmut Schlesinger and Hans Tietmeyer. One of the most inspiring phases was the wording of the Treaty with Hans Tietmeyer, Horst Köhler and Jürgen Stark in particular. It was due to them that the Maastricht Treaty was well constructed and worked. Here you saw the will to unite Europe and the influence of this particular friendship between us. DIE ZEIT: You mentioned independence as the legacy of the Bundesbank. Do you have an absolute independence in mind? An independence that forbids even critique from the political side? Trichet: It is simpler than that: I refer to Article 108 of the Maastricht Treaty. It says the executive branches in particular should not try to influence our decisions. It is a very clear wording. So it's not the ECB who defines its independence, it is the Treaty, which was approved by the people of the member states, by the people of all our democracies. Everybody is welcome to criticise our policy - the media, the analysts, the academics. And we are, as an independent institution, as a last resort, accountable to the people of Europe. By the way it is not known that I go more often to the European Parliament than our friends from the American Federal Reserve go to the US Congress.