Transparency is one the most often cited means for achieving accountability of any public institution – whether domestic or international. Enhanced transparency is thus often a strategy that institutions may use to deflect public criticisms and defuse political threats to their operation. The increase in the ECB’s transparency following the start of the sovereign debt crisis could similarly be read as the response of the monetary authority to the politicization of its role in the Eurozone and the increased contestation among citizens and policymakers. The paper investigates the drivers to increased ECB’s transparency by examining the variation in the external communication of the members of the Executive Board. Specifically, the paper sheds light on changes in the framing of monetary policy based on the speeches delivered from 1999 till present.
