The principles of accountability and transparency of the ECB
In order to ensure the credibility of the ECB, the Treaty (Article 284 TFEU) and the Statute (Article 15) impose reporting commitments. The ECB draws up and publishes reports on the activities of the ESCB at least quarterly (Article 15(1) of the Statute). A consolidated financial statement of the ESCB is published each week (Article 15(1)(2) of the Statute). From the outset, the ECB Monthly Bulletin has provided in-depth analyses of the economic situation and the outlook for price developments. The Monthly Bulletin was replaced in January 2015 with a new Economic Bulletin, which, in view of the switch in January 2015 to a six-weekly interval for Governing Council monetary policy meetings, will be published two weeks after each monetary policy meeting. On 19 February 2015 the ECB published, for the first time, an account of a Governing Council monetary policy meeting and, in so doing, aligned itself with the communication policy of other leading central banks. The ECB addresses an annual report on ESCB activities and monetary policy of both the previous and the current year to the European Parliament (Article 284(3) TFEU and Article 15(3) of the Statute). The ECB is accountable to the European Parliament, and ECB Executive Board members regularly appear before it.