Brussels, 15/06/2015 (Agence Europe) - At a monetary dialgoue on Monday 15 June with the European Commission's economic and monetary affairs committee that focused on the situation in Greece (see related article), the president of the ECB, Mario Draghi, called for a “quantum leap” in constructing economic and monetary union (EMU).
Given the problems faced by Greece and the other bailed-out eurozone nations, it is “quite clear that our EMU is an unfinished construction,” said Draghi, adding that there was a “need to conceive a quantum leap in our integration process.” He explained that it was very difficult for the member states to convince the electorate of the need to make new transfers of economic and budget powers and “explain the long-term benefits. Some sacrifices, poverty, unemployment generated as a consequence of crisis, are also due to the fact that the construction is unfinished.”
The ECB president mentioned the question of the potential side effects of quantitative easing (QE) (see EUROPE 11316). He brushed aside accusations that statements about QE by ECB executive board member Benoît Coeuré (which some traders had taken advantage of the advance knowledge gleaned from his comments) were a serious dysfunctioning or even a real change in the ECB's monetary policy. He said additional measures had been introduced to ensure publication of information about the ECB's work at the same time in all places, explained Draghi. He said that the ECB's growth forecasts for the eurozone are 1.5% for 2015, 1.9% for 2016, 2.0% for 2017 and inflation of 0.3% in 2015, 1.5% on 2016 and 1.8% in 2017. (Mathieu Bion)