Communication

Accountability and transparency

President Trichet (right) and Vice-President
Papademos at the monthly press conference

To make its monetary policy as best as possible understood by the public, the ECB gives strategic priority to effective communication and proper interaction with the public.

A high degree of transparency helps to make the monetary policy more credible and effective. It also makes it easier for the public to hold the ECB accountable for its policy decisions.

Communication channels

To explain in a clear and open manner how it interprets its mandate and how it derives its goals, the ECB has adopted a variety of communication channels.

• Monthly press conference: after the first meeting of the Governing Council every month, the ECB President presents his introductory statement – explaining the monetary policy decisions. This is followed by a Q&A session with media representatives. Transcripts of the press conference are published on the website only a few hours later.
  
• The ECB's Monthly Bulletin provides the general public and the financial markets with a detailed and comprehensive economic analysis. The publication date is usually one week after the first meeting of the Governing Council every month. It contains all the information that the Governing Council possessed in its meeting. It also contains articles providing insights into long-term developments, into general topics or into the analytical tools used by the Eurosystem within the monetary policy framework. Furthermore, it contains a statistical section.
• European Parliament: the President appears once a year before the European Parliament plenary to present the ECB's annual report. He also appears four times a year before the Parliament's ‘Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs' (ECON) to explain the ECB's policy decisions and to answer questions by Committee members. The meetings are open to the public. Transcripts of the President's hearings at the ECON are published on both the Parliament's and the ECB's website. Other members of the Executive Board also appear occasionally before the Committee.
• Speeches by Governing Council members are an important tool for explaining the ECB's view to the public. Speeches by the members of the Executive Board are published on this website. Interviews with Governing Council members are also an important communication channel.
• Visitors: the ECB receives a large number of visits from members of the general public and experts from various institutions. A special visitor service takes care of general public groups.
• Dialogue with academic world: the ECB organises expert conferences & seminars. The ECB publishes research results in the ECB's Working Papers and Occasional Papers Series.
• Statistics: data collected by the central bank are published, once their reliability has been ensured. With the help of national central banks (NCBs) the ECB collects money and banking and related statistics, balance of payments statistics and international investment position statistics, and compiles financial accounts covering the euro area.

Related publications