When he became the first president of the European Central Bank, Wim Duisenberg cannot have harboured any doubts that creating a new multinational institution whose territory extends over 12 countries which, until recently, have looked at monetary policies with quite different eyes, would be highly challenging. He probably did not anticipate how hectic the first five years would be: punctuated by an unjustified depreciation of the euro, an oil shock, a major worldwide stock market crash and the