Constructive ambiguity

30 March 2017 By George Hay Follow @gfhay

Two members of the central bank’s executive board have mused on its accountability, after a report criticised the ECB for overreach. It indeed pulled some pretty off-piste moves during the euro zone crisis. Yet clarity could constrain its ability to fight future crises.

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The European Central Bank was criticised by Transparency International for overstepping the role its architects had envisioned in its handling of past crises, in a report published on March 28.

The U.S. non-governmental organisation said that the ECB’s repeated need to make decisions on which the fate of the euro zone hangs suggested fundamental structural flaws in the currency union. It called for the central bank to assert itself and not allow EU-level political institutions to force unelected technocrats to do their dirty work.

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