On the eve of the single currency Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa noted that the Union’s ‘capability for macroeconomic policy is, with the exception of the monetary field, embryonic and unbalanced: it can avoid harm (excessive deficits) but it cannot do good (a proper fiscal policy).
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.