Yet the necessary coordination of economic policy within the EU should not be allowed to become an instrument which undermines the European Central Bank’s independence. Objections to this final and irrevocable “abdication by policy makers” are surfacing throughout Europe. There is already talk of a future ”dictatorship” of the ECB; there are also warnings of “centralbankisation”, i.e.
that Europe will be shaped in the image of the central bank. However, the priority accorded to stable money is precisely what was agreed in the Maastricht Treaty, and an independent central bank has been given the mandate to keep this promise. Only now do some seem to be getting the picture that this monetary arrangement has implications for many other policy areas, too.