Anniversary of the founding of the ECB: 25 years of collaboration, unity and independence

On 1 June the European Central Bank celebrates the 25th anniversary of its founding, which was one of the major milestones in the process of European integration into a single market with a common currency. Slovenia became part of the euro area when it joined the euro in 2007, since which we have helped to shape euro area monetary policy for its 350 million inhabitants. In marking the anniversary Boštjan Vasle, Governor of Banka Slovenije, highlighted the importance of the central bank independence in shaping monetary policy, which is one of the great institutional achievements in the area of economic policy. It contributes to a more stable economic environment, and allows individuals and businesses to realise their life goals and their business objectives.

The ECB was founded on 1 June 1998 with the task of making all necessary preparations for the introduction of the single currency, and with the mandate of ensuring price stability throughout the euro area.

Since 2007, when Slovenia joined the euro, Banka Slovenije has played a part in shaping euro area monetary policy for its 350 million inhabitants. Slovenia is represented on the Governing Council of the ECB by the Governor of Banka Slovenije. We participate in the maintenance of the regulatory framework within which financial institutions operate, and together with the other central banks in the Eurosystem we also conduct supervision of the operations of banks and savings banks. We are also jointly responsible for maintaining the stability of the financial system: through macroprudential policy we address the risks to banks that could impair their financial intermediation function. Thus we indirectly help individuals and businesses to realise their life goals and business objectives.

Governor Boštjan Vasle took the opportunity in a special contribution to highlight the importance of central bank independence, where he reiterated that this is of particular relevance to our mandate: it allows us to pursue monetary policy on the basis of our expert judgment. As the economic developments of the last three decades show, we have been successful in doing exactly this.