Economics committee MEPs quiz ECB boss Lagarde

On Monday afternoon MEPs quizzed the President of the ECB, Christine Lagarde, with a strong focus on the inflationary trends and the effects of geo-political tensions.

The quarterly meeting, held by the EP’s economic and Monetary affairs committee, is the second such meeting this year and comes just after the ECB Governing Council's decision to raise the three key ECB interest rates, after having kept them unchanged since June last year.

In her opening statement, Ms Lagarde told MEPs she was confident that inflation would return to target. She did concede however that the economic outlook was however uncertain, with an upside to inflation and a downside to growth. Defending the increased interest rates, Ms Lagarde said that this was warranted under all the economic scenarios the ECB had studied.

MEPs focused many of their questions on the rising inflation currently hitting Europe due to the tensions in the Middle East. Specific questions asked on this included whether the ECB had the tools to fight stagflation, whether it was considering how the EU’s trade policy and strategic autonomy policy could have an effect on prices, or how the different inflation rates across Europe should be addressed. MEPs also asked to what extent could food prices be further impacted by inflation and whether the ECB was looking into the way inflation could impact genders differently.

On other topics, MEPs asked for Ms Lagarde’s views on the issue of the global role for the euro within the current international context, the balance between useful simplification and damaging deregulation, stablecoins, and the balance between monetary and fiscal policy. A question was also asked about whether the ECB was considering a task force to look into the potential AI bubble and the disruptions brought about by AI.

Finally, answering a question on the next steps for the digital euro on the eve of a vote on related legislation in the EP’s committee, Ms Lagarde said that bank notes were here to stay and that between the digital euro and bank notes, one did not exclude the other.

You can follow the meeting again here:

https://multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/en/webstreaming/econ-committee-meeting_20260622-1500-COMMITTEE-ECON