Helsinki, 11/09/2006 (Agence Europe) - In an interview with The Financial Times on 11 September, Luxembourg's Prime Minister and Finance Minister Jean-Claude Juncker expressed his wish to improve and structure dialogue with the president of the European Central Bank, Jean-Claude Trichet, and to know his reaction. After the decision to extend his tenure as president of the Eurogroup by two years as of January 2007 (see EUROPE 9261), Mr Juncker said, on the subject of recent criticism from some of his EU counterparts to the decisions to raise ECB rates: “I am a great supporter of the Central Bank's independence and I have called on ministers not to be too explicit on monetary policy (…). We live in a democracy and we cannot prevent ministers from speaking, but I should like to express views in line with the general atmosphere”, Mr Juncker said, adding that, he as well as Mr Trichet, “have said that there is an excellent relationship and that cooperation will be intensified. (…) The idea that Eurogroup has the diabolical intention to harm the independence of the European Central Bank is totally wrong”. (Ed.: According to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Mr Juncker also remarked jokingly that their relations were those of “institutional tenderness”).