The chapter introduces and analyses the ECB as it was designed to become the central bank of the European Macroeconomic Constitution. It provides a view on how the ECB operates and how it aims to achieve price stability but also becomeaccountable. Three different but interlinked concepts are evaluated: monetary policy strategy, the monetary policy transmission mechanism, and the operational framework. Monetary policy strategy describes the ECB’s role in the economy and how it achieves its objectives. The monetary policy transmission mechanism is embedded in monetary policy strategy and seeks to explain how monetary policy measures are transmitted to the economy, and how monetary policy decisions affect the primary objective of price stability. The operational framework makes monetary policy decisions operational by proving the link from monetary policy decisions to money market interest rates and ultimately to the economy at large. These are discussed in turn after a brief description of the ECB’s organisation and decision-making bodies. A broad constitutional assessment of the ECB as it was designed finds that many elements raise some questions but generally the ECB confirmed the requirements of the European Macroeconomic Constitution, which is, in turn, a further confirmation of the constitutional reconstruction.

Over the last decades, adaptive capacity took a greater place on the climate research agenda without receiving sufficient operational attention. There is no consensus on how to define adaptive capacity while existing definitions are often vague. This becomes a challenge when assessing the concept. The objectives of this chapter are two-fold. First, it aims at providing guidance in overcoming the challenges associated with operationalising a concept that has been influenced by different theoretical backgrounds. In order to do so, an operational process composed of three distinct steps is presented to guide future adaptive capacity assessments. Second, the chapter seeks to demonstrate how an operational definition and framework of climate change adaptive capacity that integrate multiple epistemic, spatial, and temporal dimensions can be crafted. By doing so, this chapter unveils a method to identify governance processes fostering adaptiveness as well as the attributes of governance systems enhancing capacities to adapt.