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Casenote –– Euro Rescue Package Case: The German Federal Constitutional Court Protects the Principle of Parliamentary Budget

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2019

Sebastian Recker

Extract

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In its Aid Measures for Greece and Euro Rescue Package case, the German Federal Constitutional Court affirmed the Parliament's budget authority to provide financial aid measures to the European Monetary Union. The judgment conforms to the German Federal Constitutional Court's case law concerning the transfer of sovereign power to international organizations and reaffirms that German participation in international organizations is linked to constitutive pillars of the German Basic Law. One of these pillars is the Principle of Parliamentary Budget. This principle provides that any financial aid package has to be approved by the Parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany (Bundestag) before guarantees can be given to other states by the Federal Government. In its holding, the German Federal Constitutional Court ruled that the aid measures for Greece and the euro rescue package were consistent with the Principle of Parliamentary Budget and German Basic Law.

Type
Developments
Information
German Law Journal , Volume 12 , Issue 11: Special section - The Hartz IV Case and the German Sozialstaat , 01 November 2011 , pp. 2071 - 2075
Copyright
Copyright © 2011 by German Law Journal GbR 

References

1 Bundesverfassungsgericht [BVerfG] [Federal Constitutional Court] 7 Sept. 2011 (Euro Rescue Package Case), 2 BvR 987/10, available at http://www.bverfg.de/entscheidungen/rs20110907_2bvr098710.html; see also Press Release No. 55/2011, Federal Constitutional Court, Constitutional Complaints Lodged Against Aid Measures for Greece and Against the Euro Rescue Package Unsuccessful—No Violation of the Bundestag's Budget Autonomy (7 Sept. 2011), available at http://www.bverfg.de/pressemitteilungen/bvg11-055en.html.Google Scholar

2 See BVerfG, 30 June 2009, 123 BVerfGE 267, 2 BvE 2/8 (Ger.); BVerfG, 7 June 2000, 102 BVerfGE 147, 2 BvL 1/97 (Ger.); BVerfG 12 Oct. 1993, 89 BVerfGE 155, 2 BvR 2134/92, 2 BvR 2159/92 (Ger.); BVerfG 22 Oct. 1986, 73 BVerfGE 339, 2 BvR 197/83 (Ger.); BVerfG 29 May 1974, 37 BVerfGE 271, 2 BvL 52/71 (Ger.); BVerfG 18 Oct. 1967, 22 BVerfGE 293, Case No. 1 BvR 248/63 (Ger.).Google Scholar

3 See Euro Rescue Package Case, 2 BvR 987/10, at para. 124.Google Scholar

4 Gesetz zur Übernahme von Gewährleistungen zum Erhalt der für die Finanzstabilität in der Währungsunion erforderlichen Zahlungsfähigkeit der Hellenischen Republik [Act to Acquire Guarantees for the Preservation of Financial Stability in the Monetary Union Required Solvency of the Hellenic Republic], 7 May 2010, BGBl. I at 537 (Ger.).Google Scholar

5 Gesetz zur Übernahme von Gewährleistungen im Rahmen eines europäischen Stabilisierungsmechanismus [Act Concerning the Giving of Guarantees in the Framework of a European Stabilisation Mechanism], 22 May 2010, BGBl. I at 627 (Ger.).Google Scholar

6 See Euro Rescue Package Case, 2 BvR 987/10, at paras. 42, 49.Google Scholar

7 See Grundgesetz für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland [Grundgesetz] [GG] [Basic Law], 23 May 1949, Art. 38(1) (“Members of the German Bundestag shall be elected in general, direct, free, equal, and secret elections. They shall be representatives of the whole people, not bound by orders or instructions, and responsible only to their conscience.”).Google Scholar

8 See Grundgesetz [GG] [Basic Law], 23 May 1949, Art. 14(1) (“Property and the right of inheritance shall be guaranteed. Their content and limits shall be defined by the laws.”).Google Scholar

9 See Grundgesetz [GG] [Basic Law], 23 May 1949, Art. 2(1) (“Every person shall have the right to free development of his personality insofar as he does not violate the rights of others or offend against the constitutional order or the moral law.”).Google Scholar

10 See Euro Rescue Package Case, 2 BvR 987/10, at para. 37.Google Scholar

11 BVerfG, 125 BVerfGE 385, 2 BvR 987/10 (Ger.).Google Scholar

12 BVerfG, 126 BVerfGE 158, 2 BvR 1099/10 (Ger.).Google Scholar

13 See Euro Rescue Package Case, 2 BvR 987/10, at paras. 110, 112.Google Scholar

14 Id. at paras. 103, 104.Google Scholar

15 Id. at para. 115. This was already assessed in Chemical Weapons Storage, BVerfG, 77 BVerfGE 170, 2 BvR 624/83 (Ger.).Google Scholar

16 See Euro Rescue Package Case, 2 BvR 987/10, at paras. 94, 119.Google Scholar

17 Id. at paras. 124, 127.Google Scholar

18 Id. at paras. 137, 140.Google Scholar

19 See Gesetz zur Übernahme von Gewährleistungen im Rahmen eines europäischen Stabilisierungsmechanismus [StabMechG][Act Concerning the Giving of Guarantees in the Framework of a European Stabilisation Mechanism], 22 May 2010, BGBl I at 627, § 1(4) (Ger.):Google Scholar

20 See Euro Rescue Package Case, 2 BvR 987/10, at paras. 94, 119.Google Scholar

21 Id. at para. 142.Google Scholar

22 See Grundgesetz [GG] [Basic Law], 23 May 1949, Art. 93 (1), no. 2 (Ger.) (“The Federal Constitutional Court shall rule: in the event of disagreements or doubts concerning the formal or substantive compatibility of federal law or Land law with this Basic Law, or the compatibility of Land law with other federal law, on application of the Federal Government, of a Land government or of one fourth of the Members of the Bundestag ….”).Google Scholar

23 Current developments show the Parliament's recollect on its responsibility for integration. In response to the German Federal Constitutional Court's judgment, the Parliament stipulated the Principle of Parliamentary Budget into the Act Concerning the Giving of Guarantees in the Framework of a European Stabilisation Mechanism. Cf. Gesetz zur Änderung des Gesetzes zur Übernahme von Gewährleistungen im Rahmen eines europäischen Stabilisierungsmechanismus [StabMechG], 9 Oct. 2011, BGBl. I no. 51 at 1992 (Ger.), available at http://www.bgbl.de/Xaver/start.xav?startbk=Bundesanzeiger_BGBl&bk=Bundesanzeiger_BGBl&start=//*%5B@attr_id=%27bgbl111s1992.pdf%27%5D.Google Scholar