These premises stemmed from a widespread consensus, which had been building up over
the previous decades among economists and policy-makers, whereby monetary policy could
be seen as a ‘technical’ function of high complexity but ‘neutral’ for the real economy, once
the risk of inflation was credibly eradicated from the economy by taking the money-printing
press away from elected politicians (James, 2012).
Accordingly, the Treaty of Maastricht entrusted monetary policy to a separate entity
possessing the required independence and technical expertise; its statute is an integral part
of the Treaty, to which it is annexed as Protocol n. 4 (as from Article 129.2 TFEU). Since the
Treaty can only be modified by unanimous consensus of the member states, under this
institutional set-up central bank independence enjoys waterproof protection, even stronger
than the Bundesbank under German law. All bonds with national fiscal policies were
severed once and for all by moving the monetary policy function outside national borders,
therefore making it utterly unreachable by national politicians. Absolute political
independence and irreversible separation from national fiscal policy would offer private
agents the credible institutions required to anchor inflation expectations.
Independence is further protected by the provision in Article 130 TFEU and Article 7 ESCB
Statute whereby the ECB, the NCBs and the members of their decision-making bodies must
not receive or seek instructions from Union institutions or national governments, by the long
term of office (eight years non-renewable), and by the high personal and professional
qualifications mandated for the members of the Executive Board.2 National legislatures must
ensure that NCBs enjoy similar independence, and that their governors are suitable persons
appointed for at least five years.
Further safeguards against the risk of monetisation of sovereign debts were in the Treaty
provisions prohibiting all types of monetary (‘overdraft’) financing of Union or government
institutions by the ECB (Article 123 TFEU and Article 21 ESCB Statute); the ‘no-bailout’
clause (Article 125 TFEU) whereby Union institutions cannot take over the liabilities of any
member state government and administrative body; and the excessive deficits procedure
(Article 126 TFEU) for countries exceeding the twin limits on the public sector deficit (3% of
GDP) and debt (60% of GDP).
As was mentioned, Article 127.1 TFEU and Article 2 ESCB Statute set price stability as the
primary objective of monetary policy. They also provide that, without prejudice to this goal,
the ESCB “shall support the general economic policies in [authors’ emphasis] the Union
[and] shall act in accordance with the principle of an open market economy with free
competition”.3 The definition of the inflation goal and the formulation of the monetary policy
objectives and instruments of the single monetary policy of the eurozone belong to the
Governing Council of the ECB, the main decision-making body of the Eurosystem.