Mario Draghi declares victory in battle over the euro

From his corner office on the 40th floor of the European Central Bank’s gleaming twin tower headquarters in Frankfurt, Mario Draghi sums up how the ECB has been transformed during his presidency. “[The building] embodies our values,” says the 72-year-old Italian, with a touch of pride. “Transparency and independence.”

Under Mr Draghi, the ECB has come of age. Alongside the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England, it has developed a formidable arsenal, injecting trillions of euros of stimulus into the eurozone economy to counter the impact of the global financial crisis. Mr Draghi, now approaching the end of his eight-year term, has won standing ovations at Brussels summits. In May, President Emmanuel Macron awarded him France’s Commandeur de la Légion d’Honneur, praising him as the heir of Jean Monnet and Robert Schuman, the European project’s founding fathers.