IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bpj/evoice/v22y2025i2p207-222n1004.html

Accountability in Action: The European Parliament’s Assessment of the ECB 2024 Annual Report

Author

Listed:
  • de Haan Jakob

    (University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands)

  • Amtenbrink Fabian

    (Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands)

Abstract

This contribution assesses the report of the European Parliament on the ECB’s activities in 2024. The report concludes that overstepping its secondary objectives touches upon the ECB’s independence. Although it is critical about high inflation, the report does not offer an assessment of the ECB’s delayed response to the inflation hike. The report suggests that the use of asset purchase programmes should be limited to instances of crises, thereby ignoring why central banks introduced these programmes in the first place. According to the report, the decision on whether or not to introduce a digital euro is ultimately a political decision that has to be taken by the EU co-legislators and not by the ECB.

Suggested Citation

  • de Haan Jakob & Amtenbrink Fabian, 2025. "Accountability in Action: The European Parliament’s Assessment of the ECB 2024 Annual Report," The Economists' Voice, De Gruyter, vol. 22(2), pages 207-222.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:evoice:v:22:y:2025:i:2:p:207-222:n:1004
    DOI: 10.1515/ev-2025-0022
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1515/ev-2025-0022
    Download Restriction: For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1515/ev-2025-0022?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alan Blinder & Michael Ehrmann & Jakob de Haan & David-Jan Jansen, 2017. "Necessity as the mother of invention: monetary policy after the crisis," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 32(92), pages 707-755.
    2. Andrea Colciago & Anna Samarina & Jakob de Haan, 2019. "Central Bank Policies And Income And Wealth Inequality: A Survey," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(4), pages 1199-1231, September.
    3. Dreher, Ferdinand & Hernborg, Nils & Mochhoury, Sarah & Mulder, Timothy & Schölermann, Hanni, 2024. "The ECB’s accountability to the European Parliament 2019-2024: commitment in times of change," Economic Bulletin Articles, European Central Bank, vol. 7.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Eijffinger, Sylvester C. W. & de Haan, Jakob, 2026. "Central bank independence: An update," IMFS Working Paper Series 229, Goethe University Frankfurt, Institute for Monetary and Financial Stability (IMFS).
    2. Dikau, Simon & Volz, Ulrich, 2021. "Central bank mandates, sustainability objectives and the promotion of green finance," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    3. de Haan Jakob, 2019. "Some Reflections on the Political Economy of Monetary Policy," Review of Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 70(3), pages 213-228, December.
    4. Sen, Aariya & Sensarma, Rudra, 2025. "Winners and Losers: The Effects of Monetary Policy on Income and Consumption Inequality," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    5. Kučerová, Zuzana & Pakši, Daniel & Koňařík, Vojtěch, 2024. "Macroeconomic fundamentals and attention: What drives european consumers’ inflation expectations?," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 48(1).
    6. Anastasios Evgenidis & Apostolos Fasianos, 2019. "Monetary Policy and Wealth Inequalities in Great Britain: Assessing the role of unconventional policies for a decade of household data," Papers 1912.09702, arXiv.org.
    7. Mr. Eugenio M Cerutti & Haonan Zhou, 2018. "Cross-border Banking and the Circumvention of Macroprudential and Capital Control Measures," IMF Working Papers 2018/217, International Monetary Fund.
    8. Donato Masciandaro, 2020. "Covid-19 Helicopter Money, Monetary Policy And Central Bank Independence: Economics And Politics," BAFFI CAREFIN Working Papers 20137, BAFFI CAREFIN, Centre for Applied Research on International Markets Banking Finance and Regulation, Universita' Bocconi, Milano, Italy.
    9. Ma Eunseong & Park Kwangyong, 2025. "Gini in the Taylor Rule: Should the Fed Care About Inequality?," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 25(1), pages 241-285.
    10. Cokayne, Graeme & Gerba, Eddie & Kuchler, Andreas & Pank Roulund, Rasmus, 2024. "“Thank me later”: Why is (macro)prudence desirable?," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    11. Dimitris Christelis & Dimitris Georgarakos & Tullio Jappelli & Maarten van Rooij, 2020. "Trust in the Central Bank and Inflation Expectations," International Journal of Central Banking, International Journal of Central Banking, vol. 16(6), pages 1-37, December.
    12. Jamus Jerome Lim, 2021. "The limits of central bank independence for inflation performance," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 186(3), pages 309-335, March.
    13. Fierro, Luca Eduardo & Giri, Federico & Russo, Alberto, 2023. "Inequality-constrained monetary policy in a financialized economy," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 216(C), pages 366-385.
    14. Jeffrey R. Campbell & Thomas B. King & Anna Orlik & Rebecca Zarutskie, 2020. "Issues Regarding the Use of the Policy Rate Tool," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2020-070, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    15. Coenen, Günter & Ehrmann, Michael & Gaballo, Gaetano & Hoffmann, Peter & Nakov, Anton & Nardelli, Stefano & Persson, Eric & Strasser, Georg H., 2017. "Communication of monetary policy in unconventional times," CFS Working Paper Series 578, Center for Financial Studies (CFS).
    16. Domonkos, Tomas & Fisera, Boris & Siranova, Maria, 2023. "Income inequality as long-term conditioning factor of monetary transmission to bank rates," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    17. Tarne, Ruben & Bezemer, Dirk & Theobald, Thomas, 2022. "The effect of borrower-specific loan-to-value policies on household debt, wealth inequality and consumption volatility: An agent-based analysis," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    18. Federico Faveretto & Donato Masciandaro, 2018. "Financial Inequality, group entitlements and populism," BAFFI CAREFIN Working Papers 1892, BAFFI CAREFIN, Centre for Applied Research on International Markets Banking Finance and Regulation, Universita' Bocconi, Milano, Italy.
    19. Christopher S. Sutherland, 2020. "Forward Guidance and Expectation Formation: A Narrative Approach," Staff Working Papers 20-40, Bank of Canada.
    20. Donato Masciandaro & Davide Romelli & Gaia Rubera, 2021. "Monetary policy and financial markets: evidence from Twitter traffic," BAFFI CAREFIN Working Papers 21160, BAFFI CAREFIN, Centre for Applied Research on International Markets Banking Finance and Regulation, Universita' Bocconi, Milano, Italy.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • E52 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Monetary Policy
    • E58 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Central Banks and Their Policies

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bpj:evoice:v:22:y:2025:i:2:p:207-222:n:1004. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.degruyterbrill.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.