‘We Serve the People of Europe’: Reimagining the ECB's Political Master in the Wake of its Emergency Politics

Abstract

In the wake of the Euro crisis, the mission statement on the European Central Bank's (ECB) website was changed from 'Our mission is to serve Europe's citizens' to 'Our mission is to serve the people of Europe'. This article situates this discursive shift within a broader change of the ECB's self-presentation in public discourses and explores its meaning in terms of political theory and public law. The article argues that the shift represents a response to the perceived necessity of reimagining the ECB's foundation of legitimate governmental authority following its exercise of emergency powers during the Euro crisis. The discourse emphasizes an organic link between the ECB and 'the people of Europe' as a political subject able to authorize previously unauthorized governmental practices such as the outright monetary transactions programme. It reflects, furthermore, a new governing philosophy that stresses flexibility and discretion rather than strict adherence to rules in the ECB's exercise of power.Early versions were presented in 2017 at the "European Central Banking Workshop" at the Institute for European Studies, University of British Columbia and at the EUSA Conference in Miami. I would like to thank the participants in these events for valuable input, especially Michele

Emergency Politics After Globalization

“…Although new rules and institutions were initially introduced with reference to the “existential threats” of an exceptional situation, they quickly became firmly established. In other words, we witnessed a re-organization of public authority insufficiently (one might even say: not at all) grounded in democratic constituent power—a fact that did of course not prevent actors such as the ECB from claiming to be acting on behalf of “We, the People of Europe” ( Lokdam 2020 ).…”

Gender and Crises in European Economic Governance: Is this Time Different?*

“…A decision has output legitimacy when it is, overall, beneficial and crucially, when it is judged to be beneficial by key constituencies. For example, non-majoritarian institutions such as central banks are legitimized by their output of price stability: the argument goes that by being removed from political control, they can better serve the economic interest of the country, and so central banks exert considerable energy in communicating their success in achieving price stability and other goals connected to output legitimacy (Braun, 2016;Lokdam, 2020).…”

Constituent power and its institutions

“…This may be seen as a welcome development, but in introducing it the ECB itself effectively acted as an extraordinary representative of the constituent power. The absence of effective revolt against its acts may then be interpreted as a form of ‘acclamation by silence’ by the European people, in the name of whom the ECB now claims to act (see Lokdam, 2020 ).…”