The ECB is now the only major central bank that fails to give a public account of the opposing considerations which need to be balanced in reaching decisions on monetary action. Without such an account it is impossible to assess the quality of argument and to probe in depth such views in the Parliament's quarterly hearings. Pressure for such publication is going to mount inexorably until the ECB complies with international best practice. This is the practice of the Fed in the United States, of the bank of England, of the Swedish RiksBank and even now also the Bank of Japan. The arguments against publication of minutes and of regular forecasts amount to little more than special pleading.
Nobody likes to have their work examined.
As George Bernard Shaw remarked all professions are conspiracies against the laity. Central banking is no exception. The most basic argument in favour of transparency is quality control. The best way of ensuring an institution continues to be efficient is to open its procedures to scrutiny. Indeed, it is hard to see how the European Parliament could discharge its mandate of scrutinising the ECB if the bank's Council does not open up.