Introductory speech by Christine Lagarde, President of the ECB, at the ECB Forum on Central Banking 2026 “Shaping Europe’s future: innovation, growth and stability” in Sintra, Portugal

Sintra, 29 June 2026

It is a pleasure to welcome you to the ECB Forum on Central Banking.

Over the past 15 years, the euro area faced an environment of extraordinary pressures that called for unconventional responses.

The sovereign debt crisis brought us towards the effective lower bound. The pandemic collapsed demand further. We responded with asset purchases and refinancing operations to support the economy, and new instruments to address fragmentation.

Our toolbox expanded in other ways too: forward guidance with lift-off criteria, sequencing commitments, links between different policy instruments.

When the environment reversed and Russia cut off our access to natural gas, we responded with a conventional instrument used in unconventional ways: the fastest tightening cycle in our history, raising…