Frankfurt (AFP)
The president of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde, announced Thursday the start of public consultations at the end of March as part of a project to redefine the institute's monetary policy strategy, unchanged since 2003.
The ECB will organize "the end of March in Brussels" the first meeting "to listen to representatives of civil society organizations at EU level with a wide range of perspectives", said Ms Lagarde at a hearing before the European Parliament.
It will be through these consultations to address the subjects close to people's concerns, she said, Ms. Lagarde citing "the increase in rents and housing prices, the uncertainty of employment or the climate change".
Another way to communicate with the public, a portal on the ECB website will provide "all information on the review of the strategy" to the general public and, "as far as possible, also in all official languages", further clarified the French.
The monetary institute will then assess "the best way to take these concerns into account in our actions and our communication, within the limits of our mandate", she added.
The start of this strategic project comes at a time of low interest rates and low inflation for years.
This context has "considerably reduced the room for maneuver of the ECB and of the other central banks in the world to soften monetary policy in the face of an economic slowdown," warned the first guardian of the euro.
A sharp remark with the position of his predecessor Mario Draghi who, at the heart of the debt crisis in 2012, believed that everything had to be done, "whatever it cost", to save the euro.
© 2020 AFP