23/12/2005 (Agence Europe) - In an interview with Der Spiegel on 23 December, the President of the European Central Bank, Jean-Claude Trichet, said that the three main challenges facing industrialised countries in 2006 calling for 'permanent adaptation are the ageing population, globalisation and the development of science and technology. All three, incidentally, are the result of fantastic successes.' Asked whether Turkey is right for Europe, Trichet said: 'We are part of a historical process. And it is up to the people of Europe themselves to decide where their borders lie.' He said the ECB 'is preparing as professionally as possible the future enlargement of the euro area'. Asked about current pessimism in Germany and 'too much optimism of the kind chronically demonstrated by the USA': Trichet answered: You have to find a path between these two extremes. The optimism in the USA is systematic. There the glass is always half-full, while in the euro area and present German culture it is always half-empty! We still have an enormous amount of homework to do. But it can be done, because we already proved that we could. We Europeans simply have to believe in ourselves more.' He concluded that 'Jean Monnet would without a doubt be totally amazed' that the European Union, with 459 million people, has a single currency for 311 million people.