MEPs have backed a European Parliament text saying the European Central Bank’s independence is essential to carrying out its main role of keeping prices stable.
The adopted text said the ECB must be able to take decisions free from political pressure, while remaining accountable and not operating in isolation, the parliamentary press service reported on Tuesday.
The text was adopted with 443 votes in favour, 71 against and 117 abstentions.
The Parliament text also said it supported solidarity expressed by the ECB and central banks worldwide with the US Federal Reserve.
MEPs acknowledged ongoing work on introducing a “digital euro”, described in the text as a planned digital form of central bank money, while also stressing the role of cash.
The text warned that if the growing digitalisation of payments is left exclusively to private and non-EU actors it could create new forms of exclusion for users and merchants, and it called on the ECB to intensify its monitoring of crypto-assets.
Inflation and ECB policies
The report said a faster return to price stability should have been achieved through ECB decisions during the recent period of high inflation, and encouraged the central bank to analyse the causes of what it called stubborn inflation to draw lessons for future crises.
It noted food and energy prices have increased in Europe since the Covid-19 pandemic, and that on average the price of a meal is a third higher than before the pandemic, affecting low-income households in particular.
The text said any further easing of monetary policy should be cautious, based on economic data, and focused on maintaining price stability.
It also raised concerns about the ECB’s “unconventional measures”, including asset purchase programmes — large-scale buying of financial assets — saying they can distort market price signals and criticising the ECB for reducing its balance sheet too slowly.
MEPs supported reducing the ECB’s direct involvement in buying securities and gradually ending government bond purchases, while also saying governments’ fiscal positions have made it harder for the ECB to focus on price stability.
During Monday’s debate, rapporteur Johan Van Overtveldt said that political interference with central bank independence “invariably leads to inflation, financial instability and even nasty political turmoil.”
ECB President Christine Lagarde said the Parliament’s support for independence “sends an important signal” while adding that independence “goes hand in hand with accountability.”
