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France Calls for Coordination of ECB, Governments over Euro
French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin Tuesday called for a better coordination between the European Central Bank (ECB) and the governments of the 11 euro zone countries in keeping the single currency stable and competitive.
Jospin made the statement in a speech to heads of central banks attending celebrations of the 200th anniversary of the Bank of France, including ECB president Wim Duisenberg and U.S. Federal Reserve President Alan Greenspan.
He said that the drop of the value of euro this year should make Europeans think about launching joint actions in future between the ECB and the governments of the euro zone.
"The independence of ECB does not exclude dialogue with the political power," he said.
"Cooperation between political and monetary leaders is especially concerned with exercising in the field of exchange. Political authorities decide orientation of policy while ECB conducts operation of exchange," he added.
The 11 member countries of euro have established Euro-11, an informal forum of their finance ministers who meet once a month to discuss economic coordination in the euro zone.
Jospin said that Euro-11 and the ECB should better coordinate with each other.
The value of euro has dropped by about 20 percent in its exchange rate with the U.S. dollar since the beginning of this year.
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