Lamfalussy Lecture by Christine Lagarde, President of the ECB, at the Lamfalussy Lectures Conference organised by the Magyar Nemzeti Bank, pre-recorded in Frankfurt am Main on 15 January 2025

Budapest, 27 January 2025

In his later years, Alexandre Lamfalussy was once asked what his fundamental motivation in life was. He recalled the experience of his turbulent youth, surrounded by the destruction caused by the Second World War.^[1] “In the aftermath of the war,” Lamfalussy said, “I decided to serve the community in the rebuilding of Europe.”^[2]

He went on to do just that. A member of the Delors Committee and the first President of the European Monetary Institute, Lamfalussy helped pave the way for Europe’s monetary union and the establishment of the ECB.

His generation had also been scarred by the difficulties of the “Great Inflation” in the 1970s.^[3] And so Lamfalussy – alongside other architects of the euro^[4] – ensured that the ECB would have sufficient powers to…