Accountability
Carrying out supervisory tasks under the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) is one of the ECB’s main responsibilities, and it comes with appropriate accountability requirements.
Find out more about accountability at the ECBAccountability is essential for the transparency, legitimacy and independence of supervisory decisions.
European Parliament, EU Council and European Court of Auditors
The SSM Regulation sets out a comprehensive and robust accountability framework. How the accountability requirements are to be fulfilled in practice is clarified in:
- an Interinstitutional Agreement between the European Parliament and the ECB
- a Memorandum of Understanding between the EU Council and the ECB
- a Memorandum of Understanding between the European Court of Auditors and the ECB
Hearings and exchanges of views | The Chair of the Supervisory Board attends regular hearings and exchanges of views in the European Parliament, and in the Eurogroup in the presence of all Member States participating in the SSM. |
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Written questions | Members of the European Parliament and the Eurogroup can address written questions to the Chair of the Supervisory Board. |
Annual reports | The ECB submits annual reports on how it has carried out its supervisory tasks to the European Parliament, the EU Council, the Eurogroup, the European Commission and the national parliaments of the Member States participating in the SSM. |
Audit reports |
The European Court of Auditors may carry out audits on the operational efficiency of the management of the ECB’s supervisory tasks. The ECB’s replies to the observations in the audit report are published in an annex to the audit report. |