FRANKFURT — European Central Bank staff want to know whether President Christine Lagarde breached her own ethics standards by plugging her forthcoming book at an ECB press conference last month.
The central bank’s staff committee raised its concerns with the ECB’s chief compliance officer in a letter dated Oct. 9 and seen by POLITICO. Staffers are seeking clarity on whether Lagarde breached the central bank’s code of conduct, and have raised concerns about “potential double standards” between the ethics requirements for staff and the ECB’s six executive board members.
Lagarde mentioned her memoir, Lady First, during a monetary policy press conference on Sept. 10, when asked how she would keep the book’s commercial promotion separate from her ECB role. The Frenchwoman told reporters that “any marketing, publishing, commercial operations will happen either at weekends or on a day or two that I will take as a holiday.”
She then added: “I strongly encourage you to buy the book.” The autobiography’s English version is expected to hit the shelves on Feb. 4. A spokesperson for the ECB said Lagarde has done nothing wrong.
The podium plug has fueled speculation that Lagarde may leave the ECB by the time the book is published, well before the end of her official term in October next year. Lagarde has declined to commit to staying for the full term, triggering an early race for the EU’s most powerful economic job.
The letter is the latest in a string of clashes between the central bank’s leadership and staff representatives, who are suing ECB management for allegedly violating freedom of speech within the central bank.
The book plug might’ve been in jest. But staffers want to know whether writing and publishing the book falls within her “occupation” under Article 11.1 of the ECB’s statutes. If not, the union has asked whether the central bank’s Governing Council received and granted an exemption. The letter also asked whether the manuscript was vetted for confidential or policy-sensitive material, and whether promoting the book at an official event was consistent with the ECB’s code of conduct.
“President Lagarde informed the ECB’s Ethics Committee and the Compliance and Governance Officer about the book project and has received approval,” the spokesperson for the central bank said.
The staff committee reminded the ECB’s compliance chief that staff rules require employees to seek prior authorization before publishing material outside their work at the central bank. The rules also restrict employees from using ECB resources, or their position, for private activities.
While ECB staff is subject to a different set of rules than the bank’s leadership, the committee said that any differences in treatment should be “objectively justified” and proportionate, the letter said, adding that ethical expectations should become “more — not less — demanding as institutional responsibility increases.”
Similarly, the staff committee wanted to know whether Lagarde had disclosed any contact with the World Economic Forum and if any potential conflicts of interest had been assessed. The ECB president is rumored to be in talks about a leadership role at the global think tank, although this has never been confirmed.
“The project is a private activity, carried out in the President’s own time, and does not use ECB resources,” the ECB’s spokesperson said. The staff committee declined to comment.