Economics
ECB Must Limit Emergency Powers to Temporary Crises, Mersch Says
- Board member comments on pandemic stimulus in interview
- Giving older tools same flexibility would risk breaching law
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The European Central Bank risks legal trouble if it tries to extend the “emergency powers” of its pandemic bond-buying plan to its other asset-purchase program, according to Executive Board member Yves Mersch.
The 1.35 trillion-euro ($1.6 trillion) measure “has been created first and foremost to be a backstop,” Mersch, the ECB’s longest-serving policy maker, said in an interview at the institution’s Frankfurt headquarters on Monday.