Development of the euro financial “ecosystem” is dampened by the scarcity of euro-denominated liquid short-term safe instruments to serve as “near money” and high-quality collateral available to all. It will be argued that the ECB has the means and the mandate to eliminate this scarcity by issuing a large volume of its own debt certificates, thereby strengthening monetary transmission and stability. Issuing such “E-bills” would avoid many of the technical, economic, and political obstacles that stymied other proposals for common euro securities. However, the E-bills proposal may still face political resistance related to the balance of power between member states and common European institutions.

Speaker(s):
Daniel C. Hardy (St Antony’s College, Oxford)
Gabriele Giudice (European Commission)
Demos Ioannou (European Central Bank)

Chair: Tim Vlandas (St Antony’s College, Oxford)

For further information please see: www.sant.ox.ac.uk/events/ecb-debt-certificates-available-euro-safe-asset