This policy paper proposes to turn the European Central Bank’s Targeted Longer-Term Refinancing Operations (TLTROs) programme into a dedicated financial instrument to scale up bank loans for energy efficiency and building renovations.

With its “Renovation Wave” initiative, the European Commission has rightly identified improving the energy efficiency of buildings through renovations as a key priority for the EU’s climate strategy. However, without scalable financial firepower, the European Commission is doomed to disappoint on its ambition to double the pace of building renovation by 2030.

To ensure monetary policy does not conflict with the EU’s carbon neutrality targets, the European Central Bank must replace its current ‘market neutrality’ approach and rely instead on the EU taxonomy.

This policy briefing explores how the principle of market neutrality clashes with the ECB commitments on climate change, while also representing a financial risk for its balance sheet.

Responding to a consultation launched by the European Central Bank on the future introduction of a digital euro, Positive Money Europe outlines how a digital euro could be designed so it truly benefits people.

A digital euro would be the digital equivalent of cash, and the ECB is currently preparing for its potential implementation. The survey included questions on the challenges associated with a digital euro, the role of banks, the managing of the quantity of digital euros and the role organisations who responded could play.

The European Parliament’s (EP) current ability to hold the European Central Bank (ECB) to account is riven with pitfalls and limitations.

This lack of accountability is weakening the ECB’s public legitimacy. For people across Europe to trust the ECB enough to play its role, the bank must be held accountable for its decisions.

This briefing outlines 12 recommendations on how the EP could improve the way it scrutinises the ECB.

The European Central Bank launched in 2020 a survey asking individuals and organisations based in the eurozone for their views on the bank’s current monetary policies, as part of the upcoming Strategic Review. The survey encouraged respondents to answer questions on price stability, economic concerns, their own priorities and how the bank communicates with people.

Positive Money Europe has submitted a comprehensive response explaining how the bank can meet its inflation target, honour its environmental obligations and improve its diversity.

 

 

The EU today faces two dramatic challenges: the COVID-19 Pandemic and the climate transition. The EU’s recovery plan for the pandemic falls far short of the estimated €2 trillion needed for achieving a sustainable recovery in line with the EU’s environmental objectives.

This report from Positive Money Europe and the Sustainable Finance Lab explains how the European Central Bank can incentivize private banks to lend more money for green investments. By tweaking its Targeted Longer-Term Refinancing Operations (TLTROs) programme, the ECB could make green lending much more affordable for small businesses and households.

 

With Eurozone governments spending huge amounts to fight the recession caused by Covid-19, the debt sustainability debate and how to manage it will only intensify in the coming months.

This report, written by Sebastian Diessner, assesses the merits and drawbacks of different monetary finance proposals with the potential to revive the euro area economy. It seeks to structure the debate on how the ECB should do this by ordering, categorising and assessing the monetary policy options it has at its disposal to tackle the upcoming recession.

The EU economy urgently requires innovative and bold reforms that reshape finance, so that it can help sustain our planet and enable us to thrive.

In this policy briefing, co-written with the New Economics Foundation and 350.org, we offer policymakers a list of recommendations that, if implemented by the ECB, would constitute a successful strategic review from a climate justice perspective.

This report outlines why and how “helicopter money” should be deployed as soon as possible in the Eurozone. It summarizes the benefits of using helicopter money in the context of the Covid-19 crisis. 

It aims to help policymakers carefully prepare for the practical implementation of helicopter money. It clarifies how it can be implemented swiftly, legally, and democratically in the Eurozone context.

 

In the aftermath of the Eurozone crisis, it is clear that the European Central Bank (ECB) has extended its competences and area of influence. In comparison however, the accountability framework of the ECB was not leveled up – it remains largely weak and informal. This report advocates for a stronger role of the European Parliament in holding the European Central Bank to account and outlines specific recommendations.

This analysis of the European Central Bank’s corporate bonds portfolio reveals a worrying gap between the ECB’s quantitative easing programme and the European Union’s climate objectives.

This report, co-written by Stanislas Jourdan (Positive Money Europe) and Wojtek Kalinowski (Veblen Institute), includes an exclusive analysis of the corporate-sector purchase programme (CSPP) by the European Central Bank (ECB). The report was originally published in French (here).

The main contribution of this policy briefing is to show why helicopter money can be justified on legal grounds as a monetary policy instrument for the ECB. This key point refutes recurring claims that such a scheme would amount to “fiscal policy”.