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REPORT (2025/2182(INI))

On the European Central Bank – annual report 2025

A-10-2026-0002

Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs · Rapporteur: Johan Van Overtveldt

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✦ In shortFull textProcedure & committee votes
✦ In short · AI summary of this text, generated 4 Sept 2026

Written by a language model from the full text only; every figure comes from the text. The paragraph links open the paragraph a statement rests on — check the text itself before relying on it.

The report on the European Central Bank's 2025 annual report covers governance, monetary policy, secondary objectives, and other aspects. It stresses the ECB's primary mandate of price stability, its independence, and accountability to Parliament. It invites the ECB to enhance transparency, assess its inflation target, phase out government bond purchases, and avoid paying above-market deposit rates. It also addresses climate change, digital euro, and financial stability.

Committee position. The Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs proposes a resolution that supports the ECB's independence and primary mandate, while calling for enhanced transparency, a review of its inflation target, and a gradual exit from bond purchases.

Key points

  1. Recalls that the ECB's primary objective is price stability, and that it must support EU economic policies without prejudice to that objective.
  2. Underlines the ECB's statutory independence and its accountability to Parliament, stressing that it must act without political interference.
  3. Invites the ECB to improve transparency through benchmarks, insights into model-based assumptions, and assessments of inflation developments.
  4. Expresses concern about high inflation after the pandemic and invites the ECB to assess causes and draw lessons for future crises.
  5. Welcomes the decline in inflation and notes the ECB's rate cuts; urges prudent, data-driven easing guided by price stability.
  6. Invites the ECB to assess its symmetric inflation target and encourages periodic strategy assessments.
  7. Supports the ECB in reducing its balance sheet and phasing out government bond purchases, while regretting the impact of fiscal positions.
  8. Calls on the ECB to avoid paying deposit rates above market rates and to remove obstacles to interbank market recovery.
  9. Supports including owner-occupied housing in price indices, contingent on a harmonised approach.
  10. Notes the importance of sound public finances and suggests considering non-monetary policy adjustments for TARGET2 balances.
  11. Calls for intensified monitoring of crypto-assets and supports the ECB's role in financial stability and as lender of last resort.
  12. Welcomes Bulgaria's entry into the euro area and expresses concern about the T2/T2S outage, urging proper functioning.

Who is affected

  • The European Central Bank and the Eurosystem, which are called on to adjust monetary policy and transparency practices.
  • Banks in the euro area, which may see changes in deposit rates and interbank market conditions.
  • Bulgaria, which becomes the 21st euro area member as of 1 January 2026.

Figures and deadlines

  • EU annual inflation stood at 2.5% and euro area inflation at 2.1% in October 2025.
  • The ECB cut the deposit rate by 200 basis points between June 2024 and June 2025.

Legal basis: Articles 119, 123(1), 125, 127(1) and (2), 130, 282(2) and 284(3) TFEU, and Articles 3 and 13 TEU.