The ECB versus the EU member states

Les Echos newspaper analyses the dispute between the EU member states and the European Central Bank (ECB): "Conflicts over the ECB's interest rate policy have increased over the summer. ... Whether a coincidence or not, shortly before the start of the EU Council presidency, Nicholas Sarkozy stepped into the breach and spoke out against a rise of the base rate. ... For hardliners, a rise in prices has a depressive effect and engenders stagflation, which weighs heavily on individuals' prosperity and ulitmately impoverishes them. For the European monetary authority, the Eurozone takes precedence over the national economies. ... No doubt our politicians, regardless of their political stripe, will soon denounce the European Currency Unit as responsible for a new slow down. ... What better scapegoat than the European Central Bank?"

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