Special issue on the accountability of the European Central Bank

The special issue includes contributions on the following topics:

• climate change and the role of central banks and financial supervisors (with emphasis on monetary policy and banking supervision);
• digitalisation in the Economic and Monetary Union, thereby focusing on the European Central Bank’s plans for a digital euro, as well as the regulation of crypto-assets and their potential effects for monetary policy;
• current monetary policy instruments, with particular emphasis on the outcome of the monetary strategy review and the European Central Bank’s recent measures in response to the pandemic and beyond;
• the European Central Bank in macroprudential supervision and financial stability more generally.

The authors were invited to analyse the role of the European Central Bank (ECB) –and, where appropriate, of other institutions, bodies and agencies and/or of their interrelationship with the ECB– with respect to the topics adumbrated above. They were further asked to consider the implications of the developments they address in their respective contributions for the ECB’s accountability, as the case may be. Moreover, they were encouraged to make proposals for enhancing the existing legal and institutional framework, as well as –where appropriate– the ECB’s transparency, accountability and democratic legitimacy.