Debate during the pleanry session of February in Strasbourg on the European Central Bank annual report for 2014. Statement by Notis MARIAS (ECR, EL), Rapporteur, Mario DRAGHI, European Central Bank President, Valdis DOMBROVSKIS, Commission Vice-President for the Euro and Social Dialogue.

Strasbourg

debate

plenary session

MARIAS, Notis (ECR, EL)

European Central Bank

DRAGHI, Mario (IT)

European Central Bank annual report (T)

DOMBROVSKIS, Valdis (EPP, LV, EC)

European Central Bank annual report for 2014: extracts from the statement by Mario DRAGHI, President of the ECB

SOUNDBITE (Greek), Notis MARIAS (ECR, EL), Rapporteur, &ldquo;At the time when they had the job of supervising the big systemic banks, they were buying up issues by the Member States as well. This is why is important that we have a guard to the important ruling from the Court of Justice, which talks about the programme of QE which has been implemented by the Troika.&rdquo;

SOUNDBITE (Greek), Notis MARIAS (ECR, EL), Rapporteur, &ldquo;We need to know why starting in 2015 the ECB has imposed things on the Greek economy with the result that we might have capital controls and an end to ELA (Emergency liquidity assistance).&rdquo;

SOUNDBITE (English), Mario DRAGHI, European Central Bank President, &rdquo;Today, we are discussing the Annual Report of the European Central Bank for 2014. In that year, the Governing Council adopted a series of measures to respond to the impairment of our monetary policy transmission channels and to the low inflation environment. These included two reductions in the key ECB interest rates, the announcement of targeted long-term refinancing operations and two purchase programmes for asset-backed securities and covered bonds. 2014 was also marked by the start of the activities of the Single Supervisory Mechanism and the completion of the comprehensive assessment.&rdquo;

SOUNDBITE (English), Mario DRAGHI, European Central Bank President, &ldquo;We had to continually revise our outlook for inflation: while at the start of 2015, our staff was forecasting inflation to reach 1.5% in 2016 and 1.8% in 2017, in December they projected a rate of only 1% for this year and 1.6% for 2017.&rdquo;

SOUNDBITE (English), Mario DRAGHI, European Central Bank President, &ldquo;At last meeting in January we judged that it will be necessary to review and possibly reconsider our monetary policy stance at our next monetary policy meeting in early March, when the new staff macroeconomic projections become available. Our monetary policy is working; and the ECB is willing to contribute its share to ensuring that the recovery remains firmly on track.&rdquo;

SOUNDBITE (English), Mario DRAGHI, European Central Bank President, &ldquo;To make our financial system truly safe and sound we need to progress in two main domains, which complement each other. On the one hand, we need to finalise and implement the work we started when establishing the Single Supervisory Mechanism and Single Resolution Mechanism as the initial pillars of banking union.&rdquo;

SOUNDBITE (English), Mario DRAGHI, European Central Bank President, &ldquo;On the other hand, we need a common public backstop for the Single Resolution Fund to strengthen its credibility and we need to ensure that confidence in the safety of deposits is equally high in all euro area Member States by establishing a European Deposit Insurance Scheme.&rdquo;

SOUNDBITE (English), Valdis DOMBROVSKIS, Commission Vice-President for the Euro and Social Dialogue, &ldquo;The Commission shares the European Parliament views on the ECB independence in the conduct of its monetary policy as enshrines in the Treaties is crucial to safeguard price stability.&rdquo;

SOUNDBITE (English), Valdis DOMBROVSKIS, Commission Vice-President for the Euro and Social Dialogue, &ldquo;The Commission fully shares the European Parliament views that Europe cannot only rely on monetary policy and a favorable external environment to lift GDP growth and to raise our economy growth potential. Member States&rsquo; guardsmen must roll up their sleeves and implement necessary structural reforms.&rdquo;

SOUNDBITE (English), Valdis DOMBROVSKIS, Commission Vice-President for the Euro and Social Dialogue, &ldquo;The Commission also shares the European Parliament views on Capital Markets Union. It is our common objective to support diversification of funding sources, promote cross border investments, and improve access to finance, particularly for SMEs. Implementing the Capital Markets Unions&rsquo; Action Plan is an ambitious objective. The Commission therefore counts on the Parliament strong support and commitment in particular but not only for the out coming legislative procedures.&rdquo;