Keynote speech by Frank Elderson, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB and Vice-Chair of the Supervisory Board of the ECB, Springtij Forum

Terschelling, 20 September 2023

“From here, if you drive east, or better yet if you cycle east past Hee, Kaart, Baaiduinen, Midsland, Landerum, Formerum, Lies and Hoorn, on after Hoorn you arrive on a road to the end of the world. The end of the world? Not quite. First past that last little village. And then Siberia begins, as Wouter van Dieren wrote in a poem. That last village’s name is – fittingly – Oosterend: East end.

I first made that journey forty-five years ago. With my parents and my two sisters. To Oosterend. The second farm on the right. That’s where we stopped. That’s where we stayed. Summer after summer. And a part of me has stayed there forever. Just a part? No, that’s where I became a native of this island: a Terschellinger.

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Inside, next to the dining table hung a long poster, in a white glass frame. That…