Mr. Jean-Claude Trichet:

Good question. As I already said, the first breach of the Stability and Growth Pact came with the big countries. And I had to counter myself France and Germany under the chairmanship of Italy that were very, very, fiercely attacking the Stability and Growth Pact. It was ... I am on record vis-à-visthe European Parliament to have said that the stability and the cohesion of the euro area were depending on ... heavily depending on the Stability and Growth Pact ... and it was the big countries. We saved the letter of the pact, the spirit of the pact was largely destroyed and we saved a letter of the pact with the small countries ... clearly ... that were appalled by the big countries. In the present period, I call for all countries to go by the rule. I think that experience has demonstrated, and we learned the hard way, that we have to respect the framework of the European euro area governance ... and I will call for all countries to apply by the rule. So it's a big problem ... big and small.

Second part of the question - surplus and deficit. It is true that the MIP is a very important pillar to survey both, I would say, the loss of competitiveness and the external imbalances of the kind of deficits and also of the possible excessive imbalances when there is an accumulation of surplus countries. And there again, I think that it is very important that the Commission and the Council apply by the rules of SGP and MIP. The Commission because it has a decisive role to play of course in handling this governance pillar and the Council because the decisions are taken by the Council.