Speech by Isabel Schnabel, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB, at the Fifth Annual Charles Goodhart Lecture

London, 7 May 2026

Central bank independence is at risk. That was the key message conveyed by Jerome Powell at his final press conference, explicitly referring to the “legal attacks” on the Federal Reserve.^[1] That a sitting Fed Chair felt compelled to make such a statement publicly says something about the times we are in.

Political attacks on central bank independence are deeply disconcerting.^[2] They risk doing lasting damage by sowing doubt about the institution’s ability to act free of political consideration, weakening the anchor underpinning long-term inflation expectations.

What makes the current moment particularly concerning is that direct political pressure is not arriving in isolation. It comes on top of structural forces that are quietly eroding the conditions under which independent monetary policy is effective.

Two of these forces will be the focus of my…