mr president two thousand and eight was an extremely important year for the european and indeed the global economy
it was the year that was characterised by a great deal of uncertainty as regards the extent of the crisis which only seemed to worsen
a great deal of uncertainty was also present with regard to the time it would take for the european economies to recover as well as the tools that we should use to stimulate such a recovery
this was no easy year for the ecb which had to face a number of challenges
during two thousand and eight the ecb engaged with other major central banks to form a coordinated approach in order to provide the banking system with plenty of short-term liquidity and this approach by the ecb proved to be extremely successful
in this respect i must support my colleague in the conclusion he has come to concerning the performance of the ecb
i agree that two thousand and eight was instrumental and that those responsible have risen to this occasion
i also share some of the rapporteur's concerns with regard to the lack of transmission of interest rate cuts from the bank to the consumer and i feel that this should be further looked into so please take note mr trichet
all in all i feel that this is an extremely well-balanced report an excellent piece of work by my maltese colleague edward scicluna
