Mr. Roland Freudenstein:

Moving in the same direction in what sense? The national banks do not determine the budgetary policy of the respective governments. I understood the Deputy in such a way that the ECB should take care of national fiscal policies. Perhaps it is simply a different understanding of terms but while national banks have a role to play, as far as the euro, the interest rate and so on are concerned, monetary stability is the prerogative of the ECB. However, in my view that does not cover a brief in which the ECB would interfere in the question of national budgets and so on. That is done by the Commission, the Council and by the peer group of other national parliaments in the European semester and so on but there, the ECB does not play the decisive role. That is all I am saying and I do not believe we are very far apart on this question. As to what economists think, probably a lot of economists are convinced the ECB should play a more political role in general but a lot of economists are convinced that the ECB should stick to its guns and I think in this crisis in general, there are just a lot of economists.