Transcription of the interview with Jean-Claude Trichet, Governor of the Banque de France from 1993 to 2003 and President of the European Central Bank from 2003 to 2011, carried out by the Centre Virtuel de la Connaissance sur l’Europe (CVCE) on 24 September 2012 in Paris. Conducted by François Lafond, Managing Director of EuropaNova, the interview particularly focuses on the following aspects of the life of Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa: his personality, his activities at the European Central Bank from 1998 to 2005 and his work as Italian Minister for the Economy and Finance from 2006 to 2008.