European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde faced fierce criticism in the European Parliament on Monday from conservative lawmakers who criticized the ECB's green strategy as a "distraction/diverting issue" from its job of curbing inflation.
Lagarde has announced to fight for climate change control as a key goal and the ECB vowed last year to take the environment into account in every core policy decision such as the purchase of bonds in the trillion -euro stimulus program.
However, this is not very popular among lawmakers from the European People's Party because inflation in Europe continues to soar high so its restraint should be a priority. Although the ECB is not bound by parliament, lawmakers' objections may affect the debate on the role of the eurozone central bank's climate and interest rate setting.
"The main mandate of the ECB is to ensure price stability, which at the moment the ECB is not doing a good job," German parliamentarian Markus Ferber said in a statement. "The cry for a green economy is just a distraction from achieving that key mandate."
He and colleagues as well as Georgios Kyrtsos have tabled several amendments to paragraphs related to the ECB’s climate strategy in a report by the European Parliament to vote on Tuesday.
In one amendment, they stressed that the ECB should adhere to "market moderation" which is to buy bonds at the rate of outstanding amounts. This will implicitly close the door to buying more “green” debt and fewer bonds from highly polluting companies.
An ECB spokesman has so far not commented.
