The S&D group wants the European Parliament to negotiate an Interinstitutional Agreement with the European Central Bank (ECB) to formalise the way in which the ECB is accountable to MEPs for its monetary policy. This is the thrust of the proposal he will make to the Conference of Presidents of Political Groups of the European Parliament on Thursday 22 October.
The Social Democrats note the difference in the way the ECB is accountable when acting in the role of single supervisor in the euro area banking union and when acting in the context of its monetary policy. In the first case, there is an Interinstitutional Agreement, but not in the second case, which depends “almost exclusively on the goodwill of the ECB”, according to an S&D group document provided to EUROPE.
“While the ECB became a key crisis player and power centre in the EU's economic policies over the past years, its relationship with the Parliament has remained largely informal and based on practice (...). This must change”, said Spanish Social Democrat Jonás Fernández, coordinator of the Social Democrat group in the European Parliament's Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON).
On the part of the S&D Group, “the time has come to negotiate a formal interinstitutional agreement”, which would include the following elements: - informal monetary dialogues between the coordinators of the ECON Committee and representatives of the ECB; - improving monetary dialogues by establishing a mechanism for monitoring compliance with the commitments made (‘enforcing the answerability’); - increasing the European Parliament’s role in appointment procedures for the ECB’s governing bodies, given some MEPs criticise the gender imbalance (see EUROPE 12574/5); - formalise the sending of ECON missions to Frankfurt twice a year.
Finally, the S&D group is calling for tangible involvement of the European Parliament in the ongoing reflection process on the revision of the monetary policy strategy. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)