Petition No 0941/2018 by Canio Trione (Italian) on reforming economic and monetary policy
0 Supporters
Status: Closed
The petition concerns the historical role of the European Central Bank (ECB) as a guarantor of price stability, referred to as a prerequisite for the introduction of the single currency. Among the criticisms raised in the petition, the petitioner highlights the perceived institutional inadequacy of ECB in addressing the opposite phenomenon – that of the reduction of absolute price levels. According to the petitioner, this lack of competence became clear after the outbreak of the economic and financial crisis, when deflation and price contraction emerged as more serious risks for the euro area than the feared impact of inflation. In particular, the petitioner criticises the fact that the ECB’s monetary policy strategies and its action regarding interest rates do not take into account the different economic circumstances of individual countries that are members of the single currency, as if the effects of inflation or deflation were identical across the euro area. The petitioner believes that this has widened structural divergences between countries in the euro area, also affecting Italy. As an alternative to this scenario, the petitioner proposes something new: ‘to transform the uniform intervention rate of the ECB in an average rate of the various prices of the money, specifically applied in different areas of the Union’ (sic). This type of monetary policy would, according to the petitioner,leave room for differentiated lines of intervention in EU countries with different degrees of economic development.