Prior to the 2009 elections the European Central Bank (ECB) did not take the European Parliament very seriously. In its defence, it did not need to.
The bank's function was just to control price stability through interest rates and - with the first decade of its existence coinciding with a period of prolonged and consistent economic growth - there were relatively few challenges to its work.
Scrutiny of the ECB was also fairly tame. Compared to the powers that the US Congress has ...
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Benjamin Fox is a seasoned reporter and editor, previously working for fellow Brussels publication Euractiv. His reporting has also been published in the Guardian, the East African, Euractiv, Private Eye and Africa Confidential, among others. He heads up the AU-EU section at EUobserver, based in Nairobi, Kenya.