"We've had a fiscal compact. Right now what is most present in my mind is to have a growth compact," he told the European Parliament, calling for this to be founded on Europe's 'six pack' of tighter budgetary rules.
He pressed eurozone states to pursue structural reforms to help generate this growth, saying the ECB's contribution was to deliver stable prices.
"Are we doing all we can for growth? Our task is not that. Our task is to ensure price stability and through this contribute to growth. That's what I think we are delivering."
Chancellor Angela Merkel said Europe needs growth "in the way that Mario Draghi, the president of the European Central Bank, said it today, that is in the form of structural reforms," the chancellor told a conference of her Christian Democratic bloc in Berlin yesterday (25 April).
Merkel's comments echoed the front-runner for the French presidency, the Socialist candidate François Hollande, who said that if elected he would ask other European leaders to renegotiate a fiscal treaty in order to promote growth.
Hollande also praised the position taken by Draghi. In the first press conference of his campaign, the French socialist said that he would propose four changes to the European Union treaty, favored by Germany and approved in March but not yet ratified.
Most significant, perhaps, he called for the creation of eurobonds, but to be used to finance industrial infrastructure projects, not to consolidate debt, which the Germans oppose.
Hollande also vowed to push for a financial transaction tax, as his rival, President Nicolas Sarkozy has done. Finally, he urged the European Investment Bank to place a greater emphasis on job creation in its allocation of financing.
Economic data show deepening recession
The eurozone's business slump deepened at a far faster pace than expected in April, data showed on Monday (23 April), suggesting the economy will stay in recession at least until the second half of the year.
Draghi conceded recent data had been mixed though he expected overseas demand and the ECB's still very low interest rates to support growth.
"At the same time, downside risks relate in particular to a renewed intensification of tensions in euro area sovereign debt markets and their potential spillover to the real economy," he said.
Despite the political stand-off in the Netherlands, the immediate pressure is off. Spanish and Italian 10-year government bond yields fell yesterday and are both comfortably below the 6% mark which starts to flash danger signals.
