Judgment_paragraph 134 · Commission of the European Communities v European Central Bank (C-11/00)

134As is clear from the wording of Article 108 EC, the outside influences from which that provision seeks to shield the ECB and its decision-making bodies are those likely to interfere with the performance of the ‘tasks’ which the EC Treaty and the ESCB Statute assign to the ECB. As the Advocate General has pointed out at paragraphs 150 and 155 of his Opinion, Article 108 EC seeks, in essence, to shield the ECB from all political pressure in order to enable it effectively to pursue the objectives attributed to its tasks, through the independent exercise of the specific powers conferred on it for that purpose by the EC Treaty and the ESCB Statute.