At the end of May, a group of Canadian students visited the Bundesbank’s University of Applied Sciences in Hachenburg as part of a tour of various European institutions lasting several weeks. Together with Brussels, Luxembourg, Frankfurt am Main and Strasbourg, Hachenburg has become a key port of call on the European Study Tour and Internship Programme. Students from all across Canada take part, contributing knowledge from a wide range of study programmes.

© Arno Swillus

In an introductory presentation, Uwe Schollmeyer, a lecturer at the Bundesbank’s university, first outlined the Bundesbank’s role as a national central bank within the Eurosystem. He went on to explain the euro area’s monetary policy decision-making processes as well as its decentralised implementation of these decisions, and how this makes the Bundesbank not only a German institution, but a European one, too. At the end of the presentation, the Canadian visitors were keen to ask questions about current European policy issues.

Canadians join the ECB Governing Council

Next, the guests joined students from Hachenburg in a workshop that simulated a meeting of the ECB Governing Council. Using macroeconomic data, the Canadians and Germans teamed up to prepare a statement for each of the 19 euro area countries and justify it to the group. In the end, the interest rate level and use of unconventional monetary policy instruments the students opted for were almost identical to those announced by the Governing Council in its latest monetary policy decisions.

© Christof Wolf

In the afternoon, the tour group walked to Marienstatt Abbey, taking the opportunity to chat and making the most of the good weather to explore the medieval church and its Baroque monastery buildings. Drinking a beer together in the Abbey’s brewery was the perfect way to round off the trip.

The Bundesbank’s university in Hachenburg is set to be a regular stop on the European Study Tour led by Dr Conrad King in the coming years, too.