Statements by Gunnar H&Ouml;KMARK (EPP, SE), Elisa FERREIRA (S&amp;D, PT), Bernd LUCKE (ECR, DE) and Michael THEURER (ALDE, DE),&nbsp;following the press conference by Mario DRAGHI, ECB President on the ECB Governing Council meeting, in the EP in Brussels.

Brussels

statement

HÖKMARK, Gunnar (EPP, SE)

European Central Bank

monetary dialogue with the ECB (T)

LUCKE, Bernd (ECR, DE)

THEURER, Michael (ALDE, DE)

FERREIRA, Elisa (S&D, PT, EC)

MEPs statements following the press conference by Mario DRAGHI, ECB President on the ECB Governing Council meeting

https://api.multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/documents/20125/20628696/I097910Chapters%5BSD-EN%5D.srt

SOUNDBITE (English), Gunnar H&#214;KMARK (EPP, SE), "There is a risk sharing for the National banks and this is of course important for not least Germany and Netherlands and Finlad but the main problem is: will this Quantitative Easing make Europe more competitive? will it create more investments? And we haven't seen any trace of that so far".

SOUNDBITE (English), Gunnar H&#214;KMARK (EPP, SE), "This was the start of the crises once: that money was too cheap. So that doesn't solve the problem we have, our problems are structural, and regarding competitiveness, and this doesn't solve these real problems".

SOUNDBITE (English), Gunnar H&#214;KMARK (EPP, SE), "I think it is important that we invest but there is no better way of investing and secure that we get a lot of investment than consolidated public finances, because then private investments will flourish. And to make investments in Europe attractive, the internal market and all the big projects we can do together, but we need to secure that we can attract the money".

Establishing shot of Mme Ferreira, (1 shot)

SOUNDBITE (English), Elisa FERREIRA (S&amp;D, PT), "I am very glad that this step has been taken again by Mr Draghi, I think he had all the reasons to take it. He has a clear mandate, the inflation should be around 2% and the inflation is virtually 0, in some member states is even negative, and so the stimulus to the economy was absolutely necessary and I'm very glad he took it".

SOUNDBITE (English), Elisa FERREIRA (S&amp;D, PT), "This is an important step but it has to be combined with changes in the previous policies, in particular in what concerns macro-economic management of the euro-zone; I hope that the new interpretation of the Stability and Growth pact by the Commission is used in full in the sense that you've got to adjust the speed and the strength of the adjustment to the economic situation".

SOUNDBITE (English), Elisa FERREIRA (S&amp;D, PT), "Finally we see some move from the Commission, from the ECB... We hope that governments will also join in, because it's becoming a very critical situation".

SOUNDBITE (German), Bernd LUCKE (ECR, DE), "Yes it did not come unexpected, but I'm shocked, because this a desperate action of the BCE, which seem to do not know other means than to launch an enormous bond buying of State debts and does this with freshly printed money. The Eurozone is in a very difficult crisis, we have the danger of stagnation and deflation, it seems we are moving deeper into this. And the BCE had since a good moment pushed money into the market, it has not shown the right impact so far. Now the BCE launches this attempt to make the impact much bigger, but I have doubts if it will bring help. The actual causes are lying somewhere else, it is the common currency that is unaptly for the common space."

SOUNDBITE (German), Bernd LUCKE (ECR, DE), "Yes, the consequences will be alarming, because there is obviously no need for a real capital market at the moment. Even the European Investment Bank can simply print bonds and can sell them to the ECB, so that the EIB gets fresh money, that is the same for the States. That means we do not need any more a creditor who believes, because the ECB does finance all what European Institutions would like to get financed. That puts the question on the table why are our markets not functioning, why has nobody anymore trust in our institutions, why must the ECB do it and is the ECB allowed to do it?"

Establishing shot of Mr Theurer, (1 shot)

SOUNDBITE (German), Michael THEURER (ALDE, DE), "There is a danger that a cheap money tap is opened, that is for us as Liberals a very critical development, we are very sceptical as there is a difference between the Eurozone and the U.S.A., in the U.S. you find open labour markets, markets are strongly liberalised and deregulated, that is not the case in the Eurozone. We fear that through the cheap money the markets will be flooded but the structural reforms are left apart. So we stay sceptical."

SOUNDBITE (English), Michael THEURER (ALDE, DE), "As a liberal MEP I'm sceptical, the quantitative easing will not lead to the wishful increase of growth rates because if we compare it to the U.S. we have a lack of deregulation and liberalisation of labour markets and of other markets and therefore our focus is on the structural reforms which must be done by countries like Italy and France."

SOUNDBITE (English), Michael THEURER (ALDE, DE), "The deflation we see is resulting out of decreasing oil prices and also from the competition from consumer products coming from Asia, therefore we think it is important to increase the competitiveness and the structural reforms in combination with that quantitative easing could help but we see a lack of the structural reforms."