Cancellation: Outside Governing Council meeting and press conference in Dublin on 15 March 2001

The Governing Council of the European Central Bank has postponed its meeting in Dublin, scheduled for Thursday 15 March 2001.

Instead, the meeting will take place, as usual, in Frankfurt. There will be no press conference following this meeting.

The decision to postpone the Dublin meeting and the press conference was taken following consultation with the Central Bank of Ireland. As part of a major effort by the Irish authorities to prevent the spread of foot and mouth disease to Ireland, a large number of meetings, conferences and other events - including next week's St Patrick's Day festivities - have been cancelled or postponed. In the light of this, it has been decided to defer the Governing Council meeting in Dublin to a later date.