2 For all these reasons, the belief that open markets are conducive to freeing human potential, expanding opportunities, and improving well-being is a fundamental principle upon which our societies are built.
In the case of the European Union, the principle of an “open market economy with free competition, favouring an efficient allocation of resources”, is inscribed in those terms in Article 120 of the Treaties. It is also explicitly recalled in the Statute of the ECB that everything we do has to be consistent with that principle. 2.