Well, the thing is, even when the ECB tries to workk within the rules it gets sabotaged from within by the hawks.

European Tribune - Non à Weber!

Quatremer points out that Trichet has been criticised by both Chirac and Sarkozy for "rigidity and obsession with inflation". However, Trichet is now recognised as being more flexible - Quatremer credits him with this:

BCE: après Trichet, à qui le tour ? - Coulisses de Bruxelles, UE		ECB: after Trichet, whose turn? - Backstage Brussels, EU
Dans la nuit du 9 au 10 mai, pour sauver une zone euro au bord de l'explosion, le président de la BCE a convaincu le conseil des gouverneurs de jeter par-dessus bord l'un de ses dogmes et a obtenu de pouvoir racheter sur le marché secondaire, celui de la revente, les obligations d'États de la zone euro attaqués par les marchés afin de casser la spéculation et stabiliser les cours.		During the night of 9 to 10 May, to save the eurozone at the brink of explosion, the chairman of the ECB convinced the governing board to throw overboard one of its dogmas, and obtained the right to buy on the secondary market (where bonds are sold on), eurozone sovereign bonds attacked by the markets, so as to break speculation's back and stabilise prices.

Quatremer also credits Trichet with the decision not to take ratings agency notation into account when eurozone bonds were offered as collateral for borrowing from the ECB. Axel Weber, (and Jürgen Stark, the ECB's German chief economist) were both opposed to these measures and got in Trichet's way time and again -- and publicly:

Le président de la Buba n'a pas hésité, dès le 11 mai, à faire connaître publiquement son désaccord avec la décision de la BCE, rompant ainsi un principe pourtant imposé par l'Allemagne lors de la négociation du traité de Maastricht, celui du secret des délibérations. Désaccord depuis répété sans relâche, Weber allant même jusqu'à plaider pour le retrait des facilités de financement accordées aux banques et pour une augmentation des taux d'intérêt...

The Buba chairman didn't hesitate, 11 May, to let it be publicly known he disagreed with the ECB decision [re secondary market buying], thus breaking a rule that had all the same been imposed by Germany in the Maastricht Treaty negotiations, that of the secrecy of ECB deliberations. The disagreement has not ceased since, Weber pushing it as far as to argue for withdrawal of financing facilities extended to banks, and in favour of an increase in interest rates...

Keynesianism is intellectually hard, as evidenced by the inability of many trained economists to get it - Paul Krugman