The tasks of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) and of the eurosystem are laid down in the Treaty establishing the European Community. They are specified in the Statute of the ESCB and of the European Central Bank(ECB).
The primary objective of the ESCB shall be to maintain price stability and support the general economic policies in the Community with a view to contributing to the achievement of the objectives of the Community. The ECB also responsible for framing and implementing the EU's economic and monetary policy.
The European Central Bank (ECB, based in Frankfurt, Germany) manages the euro - the EU's single currency - and safeguards price stability in the EU.
These institutes are said to be supranational. Now the question that comes to mind - why these institutions are called supranational ?
The supranational nature of European institutions is due to the independence of the institutions vis-à-vis the mamber states. In other worlds, the European institutions pursue the common European interest. The European Commissioners, the mambers of the European Parliament (EP), the employees of the European Court of Justice and the officials of other European institutions all have a European mandate. The are supposed to deal with the matters submitted to them and the staff under them without taking any account of their own country of origin.
But, it is believed that the European institutions suffer from 'democratic deficit'. This is the result of various factors, they are complex ways of decision making; the decision-making mechanism still being tilted too much on the side of the Council (the member states ) and the Commission; the power of European Parliament still being limited, as compared to the that of the Council; the unanimous vote method in many fields, which allows one country to block common decision so as to hold on to a decisive advantage; A communications policy that has long been deficient and directed downwards from on high (the "top-down"method) rather than from the ordinary person towards the European institutions ("bottom-up") and lack of transparency. But that dosn't mean that the institutions a such don't have sufficient democratic legitimacy. The process of European Integration has been envolving continuously right from the outset.
