Furthermore, the open budgetary flank increases the likelihood of tensions between politicians and the central bank. I am not surprised that the financial markets have so far reacted rather moderately to the ECOFIN decision. What weighs most are the medium to long-term effects on credibility and on the functioning of the institutional setting of economic and monetary union.
The decision of the ECOFIN Council threatens to break the political consensus of the Maastricht Treaty. Signing the Maastricht Treaty has limited the national sovereignty of fiscal policy.