ECB’s Villeroy: TPI Confirms Governing Council’s Unity and Unlimited Commitment to the Euro

22 July 2022

By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member François Villeroy de Galhau on Friday conceded that the ECB had given every indication of not being able to come up with a substantive anti-fragmentation programme by yesterday, but asserted that the achievement reflected policymakers’ unity and commitment.

‘Few people would have bet, five weeks ago, after our exceptional Governing Council meeting of June 15, that we would achieve its development so quickly and so effectively’, he said in a statement published on the website of Banque de France, which he heads.

Corresponding to this, ‘we will be as determined in its activation as we were in its development’, he said.

Any decision to deploy the instrument ‘will naturally rest with our Governing Council, since it is a monetary instrument’, he said.

The ‘success’ of the Transmission Protection Instrument’s timely design speaks to ‘the unity of the Governing Council’ as well as to ‘our unlimited commitment to the euro’, he said.

‘After the OMT in 2012, the PEPP in 2020, and these two instruments remain in our “toolbox”, no one can any longer have the slightest doubt about the sustainability of the Eurozone.’

The TPI is also ‘very strong confirmation’ of the ECB’s intention to pursue and achieve monetary normalisation, he said.