For purposes of supporting and safeguarding the pursuit of price stability, the Treaty has endowed the ECB with a high degree of institutional independence. Being protected from potential political pressure is a further crucial factor for the success of the ECB in allowing it to guarantee European citizens a long-term euro area perspective in pursuing its mandate of maintaining price stability.
In order to assure transparency and accountability with respect to its policy design and implementation, the Treaty has imposed extensive reporting requirements on the ECB. The ECB has even exceeded these requirements, thereby meeting very high standards in this respect.