Posted on 07 March 2018
Former President of the European Central Bank Jean-Claude Trichet visited the Historical Archives of the European Union on 16 February 2018 for a tour of the repositories and to take part in a private interview, organized as a part of our oral history project “Leaders Beyond the State”.
The Chairman of the board of directors of Bruegel and former President of the European Central Bank was interviewed by Emmanuel Mourlon-Druol, Senior Lecturer at the University of Glasgow’s Adam Smith Business School and Jean Monnet Fellow at the EUI. The interview will be made available to researchers in the coming weeks.
The private interview took place in the framework of a larger series of events titled “Leaders Beyond the State” where all former presidents of European institutions are invited to the European University Institute for a public interview to record their experiences as leaders in transnational government. The series of interviews is organized by the School of Transnational Governance at the EUI, in collaboration with the Department of History and Civilization and the Historical Archives of the European Union.
During President Trichet’s trip to Florence, he received the chance to visit our archives and greet students who take part in our educational programme. He was presented with key documents pertaining to the history of the European Union in general, such as De Gasperi’s copy of the Draft Peace Treaty of 1947 and the first clandestine edition of the Manifesto di Ventotene.
He also viewed documents specifically related to European economic and monetary integration (EMU) and the European Central Bank, such as discussions regarding the EMU and the introduction of the Euro. He was delighted to also discover some correspondence addressed to him in the archives, in particular correspondence between him and his professional and personal friend Tommaso Padoa Schioppa whose private papers are deposited at the HAEU.
The public interview, organized by the School of Transnational Governance can be viewed here. Additionally photos from his visit to our Archives can be found on our Facebook page.