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"It was a constructive exchange of views on the
current state of the European economy," an ECB spokesman said
after the meeting in Luxembourg.
Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has been leading calls to
move from austerity to looser EU budget rules. His country holds
the EU's rotating presidency for the second half of this year
and is trying to secure influence over the new European
Commission, to be led by Juncker.
Draghi, who brought the euro zone back from the brink of
break-up in 2012 with his pledge to do "whatever it takes" to
save the euro, has called on countries to respect the EU's
Fiscal Compact on reducing public debt.
In a speech in London last month, the ECB president appeared to
push back against Renzi's calls for flexibility, arguing that
fiscal rules should not be viewed as a "painful accounting
exercise."
Juncker and Draghi met as ECB Governing Council members gathered
in Frankfurt.
The ECB council is expected to leave interest rates on hold when
it meets on Thursday, waiting to assess the impact of new
stimulus it is launching next month and that it hopes will lift
inflation off rock-bottom levels.
Ahead of the meeting, French President Francois Hollande said
the ECB and EU economic powerhouse Germany must do more to boost
growth and fight a "real deflationary risk" in Europe.
The French government has started warning that it might be
difficult to meet an EU deadline to bring its public deficit
under 3 percent of economic output next year, but Hollande told
newspaper Le Monde: "We are not asking for any leniency from
Germany but we are asking it to do more to boost growth."
(Writing by Paul Carrel; Editing by Toby Chopra)
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