It is a pleasure to welcome you to this reception marking the 25th anniversary of the ECB and the Eurosystem. Helmut Kohl, the former German Chancellor, once famously observed that “peace means more than just an absence of war”. And at its root, the story of the euro is one of building the foundations for lasting peace. It is a story that stems from Europe’s far-sighted decision after the Second World War to bind its economies together so tightly that our futures would be inseparable, and which, in turn, created the powerful logic underpinning European integration. This engine of integration meant that whenever we ... (full story)