Debate during the plenary session of February in Strasbourg on the European Central Bank annual report for 2014. Statements following the declarations of Mario DRAGHI, ECB President by Tom VANDENKENDELAERE (EPP, BE), Costas MAVRIDES (S&D, CY), Stanislaw OZOG (ECR, PL), Cora van NIEUWENHUIZEN (ALDE, NL), Fabio DE MASI (GUE/NGL, DE)

Strasbourg

debate

plenary session

European Central Bank

DRAGHI, Mario (IT)

VANDENKENDELAERE, Tom (EPP, BE)

European Central Bank annual report (T)

van NIEUWENHUIZEN, Cora (ALDE, NL)

MAVRIDES, Costas (S&D, CY)

DE MASI, Fabio (GUE/NGL, DE)

OŻÓG, Stanisław (ECR, PL)

European Central Bank annual report for 2014: extracts from the debate

<p align="LEFT">SOUNDBITE (Dutch) VANDENKENDELAERE,Tom (EPP, BE), No one is just a saver. Many people my age are halfway through their mortgage, and they benefitted from low interest rates. Workers, employers and people saving for their pensions, all of us have an interest in the economy picking up faster. Of course there are risks, but we must not be hamstrung by those risks. Because not intervening could be even more risky, and therefore I support the balanced vision of this parliamentary report.</p>

SOUNDBITE (Greek), Costas MAVRIDES (S&amp;D, CY), Now the question of fragmentation is a major problem across the Eurozone. The cost of lending is for SMEs is a major thing. It's more expensive if you are a small business than if you are a big one, and they are the ones who because of their size are bearing the brunt of the economic heat, and how can we get low cost lending getting through to the real economy?

SOUNDBITE (Polish), Stanis&#322;aw O&#379;&#211;G (ECR, PL), When it comes to the report on the ECB then I think there's one very important thing in my opinion, and this concerns the independent nature of the decision of the ECB. And its supervisory role as well and the decisions it takes concerning monetary policy. We have to ensure of course that there are no conflicts of interest when it is carrying out these activities.

SOUNDBITE (Dutch), Cora van NIEUWENHUIZEN (ALDE, NL), There ar countries which have got big debt and big deficits, and which have also got low growth and low inflation, and all kinds of permutations. And for some countries it is difficult to make things add up. And the question then if that's the case, is it right to continue to expand and build on Quantitative Easing? There are negative side effects, of stimulus on the stability of pension funds and the economy in general.

SOUNDBITE (German), Fabio DE MASI (GUE/NGL, DE), We need public investment, and the ECB must support it buy buying loans through the investment banks, otherwise the crisis will get even worse.