What first assessment can be made of the monetary strategy since 1999 ?

Assessing the ECB's performance is unusually difficult because both the Bank and the context within which it operates - the integration of 12 national foreign exchange markets - are so radically new. There is no historical precedent. Nor are there any criteria against which to judge monetary policy designed for a group of states, which are closely integrated but fall short of a federal structure. One does not need to be an economic expert to appreciate that monetary policy is much more complicated in this novel situation than it is for in a nation state or a federation which can resort to historical precedents. There are technical difficulties - eurozone statistic are far less reliable as a basis of policy decisions than national ones - and political ones, in particular the preponderance of national interests. European governments still tend to europeanise their problems and nationalise their successes. Since European integration is still very much a work in progress, it is all too easy to criticise the work of the ECB, not least because it is build on various, perhaps even conflicting ulterior motives.