Per Jacobsson address: Duisenberg warns against risk of complacency in path toward European integration
| Pages | 345-346 |
Page 345
On September 26 in Washington, D.C., Dr. Willem F. Duisenberg, President of the European Central Bank (ECB), delivered the 1999 Per Jacobsson address, "The Past and Future of European Integration: A Central Banker's Perspective." His remarks are summarized here; the full text is available on the IMF's website (www.imf.org).
The original purpose of integration-to avoid a recurrence of the wars that had so plagued Europe earlier this century-remains as valid today as it was fifty years ago, Duisenberg said. To date, this process has largely been successful, but complacency remains a concern. Analyzing Europe's experience, he indicated that the sometimes bumpy path to integration has often been related to business cycles and major shocks, that the process has now reached a point of no return, that the political component of integration is still essential, and that politicians should shoulder the responsibility of clarifying the objectives of the integration process.
It is, and will remain, the central banker's role to advise participants of the economic consequences and risks of specific integration steps and to stipulate under which conditions these steps can be safely taken. The ECB's role may often be viewed as stepping on the brakes, but this, he suggested, maybe the most constructive contribution central bankers can make to the integration process.
In a task of this magnitude, Duisenberg emphasized, there are bound to be challenges as well as opportunities. He grouped the challenges facing Europe into three broad categories: making the euro and the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) a success; coping with the accession of new members; and developing the role of Europe, the ECB, and the Eurosystem in the world.
From the perspective of a central banker, the most important task for the Eurosystem is to build a track record of actual price stability. Here, Duisenberg said, "actions speak louder than words." Europe's citizens should have confidence in their currency and in their central bank, he insisted, and the "ECB should be perceived as an institution that says what it does and does what it says."
The ECB and the Eurosystem, he added, should develop into truly European institutions that make their decisions and conduct their analyses from a euro-area-wide perspective. Duisenberg stressed that the ECB's mandate of maintaining price...
To continue reading
Request your trial