In February 2020, the ECB launched its “ECB Listens Portal” to gather feedback from the general public as part of its ongoing monetary policy strategy review. [2] The (non-representative) results of this listening exercise indicate that many survey respondents assign high importance to the ECB considering issues that go well beyond a narrow interpretation of its traditional price stability mandate.
While about a quarter of respondents indicated that the ECB should focus exclusively on price stability and leave other topics to democratically elected bodies, a significant number of respondents expressed the view that the ECB ought to play a more active role in tackling wider societal challenges, with the top priority given to climate change as well as growth and employment (Chart 3).