Before it is decided who will chair the governing council for the next eight years, the authors look back and examine precisely how decisions have been taken since the ECB was created – by unanimity, by majority, or by consensus.
本文作者回顾并仔细研究了自欧洲央行成立以来，欧洲央行是如何做出决定的——通过全体一致、多数或共识。
Given the peculiar multi-country nature of the Eurosystem, taking monetary policy decisions by unanimity, or at least by consensus, was considered a priority by the founder members of the governing council of the ECB to ensure that the new central bank would be seen as speaking with one ‘supra-national’ voice.
鉴于欧元系统特有的多国的本质，货币政策决定的全体一致或共识被欧洲央行管委会的创始成员认为是确保欧洲央行以“超国家”运行的优先事项。
That is why ECB President Duisenberg declared in July 2002 that “the Governing Council’s decisions are decisions by a collegiate body and that every individual member of that body will defend and describe the outcome of certain discussions as if he had been 100% enthusiastic about those decisions. They will be supported by the entire Governing Council.”
正因为如此，欧洲央行（首任）行长德伊森贝赫在2002年7月宣布，“管理委员会的决定是由一个集体机构做出的，该机构的每一位成员都将为某些讨论的结果进行辩护和描述，就好像他对这些决定100%充满热情。”他们将得到整个理事会的支持。”
During his appointment procedure in September 2003, asked by the members of the European Parliament about the objectives that he would pursue during his mandate as president of the ECB, Jean-Claude Trichet also identified “collegial decision-making” as one of the three essential principles that would guide his presidency, and added that “the President is the head of a team, and not a single player. The Executive Board is a team. The governing council is a team. And the success of the ECB, and that of the Eurosystem, can only be achieved through teamwork”.
2003年9月，时任行长特里谢当被欧洲议会的成员问及他追求的目标时，他明确了“合议的决策”作为三个基本原则之一，并补充称，“行长是一个团队,而不是一个单一的球员。执行委员会是一个团队。理事会是一个团队。欧洲央行和整个欧元系统的成功，只有通过团队合作才能实现。”
However, faced with critical crises and major challenges in the second decade of its existence, the ECB’s governing council, and its president, recognised that reaching unanimity or even a consensus on every decision was not the utmost priority (and was probably too difficult to achieve given the circumstances) and that decisions could be taken by simple majority if needed.
然而，面对关键的危机和主要挑战的第二个十年，欧洲央行管理委员会及其行长承认，就每个决定达成一致、甚至达成共识并不是最大的优先级(也可能是难以实现的情况下)，如果需要可以采取简单多数决定。
This highlighted the important trade-off between having all, or at least most, of the members of the governing council on board when taking decisions – in order to be able to speak with one voice (and also in fine to avoid creating tensions between member states and resentment towards the ECB) – and making timely optimal decisions for the euro area as a whole.
这强调了在决策时，在为了以一个声音发表观点、所有或大部分管委会成员达成一致，和为欧元区整体作出及时最优决策之间的重要权衡。
The next president of the ECB, like his predecessors before him, will have the difficult task of dealing with that key trade-off and finding the right balance between these two concerns. Before the choice on who will chair the governing council during the next eight years is made, it is thus interesting to look back and examine precisely how decisions have been taken since the ECB was created. This is what we investigate in this blog post.
下一任欧洲央行行长，与其前任一样，将面临艰巨的任务，即处理好这一关键权衡，并在这两种担忧之间找到合适的平衡。因此，有必要回顾并准确研究一下自欧洲央行成立以来，欧洲央行是如何做出决定的。
