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The term "quantitative tightening" refers to the process of decreasing the central bank's balance sheet through a reduction of asset holdings acquired during "quantitative easing". Over the years, the Eurosystem acquired a substantial portfolio of assets as part of its asset purchase programmes. While the European Central Bank (ECB)'s Governing Council decided already in 2022 to stop net purchases, reinvestments of principal repayments continued until March 2023, thus maintaining the exisiting stock ...

The ECB has orchestrated a U-turn in monetary policy since July 2022. However, inflation remains a considerable distance away from its own medium-term objective. The ECB relies too heavily on data dependence and uncertainty in communicating monetary policy to markets and the public. It also fails to acknowledge the inherent tensions that exist between monetary and financial stability policies. The current hawkish stance is appropriate but leaves the ECB open to more credibility losses should tail ...

Inflationary pressures in the euro area slightly eased over the last few months, mainly due to the decrease in energy prices. However, the core inflation rate still remains well above the ECB’s target. A rise in inflation expectations is still a major risk to further increase in inflation, and thus should be monitored closely. We find that contractionary monetary policy by the ECB and the Fed decreases energy prices and the headline price level in the euro area. This paper was provided by the Economic ...

The Eurosystem is now reducing its bond holdings. Provided this is carried out in a measured way, it should not have a big impact on financial conditions or cause financial instability. The reduction is the correct policy because of legal problems with the Eurosystem owning so many sovereign bonds and because it provides space to implement the Transmission Protection Instrument (TPI) effectively. On the costs of operating a large balance sheet, the ECB should re-introduce its tiering system for compensation ...

This joint workshop gave members of the BUDG and CONT Committees an overview of global efforts to finance the fight against climate change and of the EU’s role in this context. Key findings were:  The EU’s contribution, both regulatory and financial, is consid-erable and exceeds its ‘fair share’;  However, a significant gap remains between actual commit-ments globally and the agreed funding level of USD 100 bil-lion per year;  Even more funding will have to be mobilised, including from private ...

Offering an overview of the economic and budgetary situation in the European Union and beyond, and summarising the main economic indicators in the EU and euro area and their two-year trends, this study is the seventh in an annual series of 'Outlooks' produced by the European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS). In seven chapters, the authors of the publication explain and analyse the annual EU budget and give an overview of its headings for 2023, all within the wider budgetary context of the EU's ...

This collection of publications presents studies, in-depth-analyses and briefings related to Anti-Money Laundering (AML), produced or delivered by the Policy Department for Economic, Scientific and Quality of Life Policies (DG IPOL), the Economic Governance Support Unit (DG IPOL), and the Directorate-General for Parliamentary Research Services (EPRS). Combating money laundering and terrorist financing has been part of the EU and the international policy agenda for many years, with a series of reforms ...

This publication seeks to assist the Members of the European Parliament's Committee on Budgetary Control (CONT) in their work related to the 2021 discharge procedure, scrutinising how the general budget of the European Union is spent. It is based on a sample comprising 17 special reports by the European Court of Auditors (ECA), which have been presented during CONT committee meetings over the past 12 months (December 2021 to November 2022), and for which the committee secretariat prepared working ...

Without effective coordination of fiscal policies and active supervision of external and internal imbalances, significant negative spillover effects can occur between Member States participating in economic and monetary union and across the EU more widely. A credible fiscal framework and related rules should therefore be designed and enforced, to ensure that Member States pursue sound public finance policies that keep deficits within the range where financing can be secured. This approach, coordinated ...

This study evaluates the European Parliament's accountability instruments in the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) in light of their comparability to existing arrangements in monetary policy. The analysis shows that the Inter-Institutional Agreement with the European Central Bank in banking supervision did not result in a significantly different accountability relationship than the one between the two institutions in monetary policy. The results are based on interviews with Members of the European ...