CELS Webinar: The German Constitutional Court's decision on PSPP: Constitutional earthquake?
Channel: Cambridge Law Faculty
Date: 2020-05-14

In its judgment pronounced on 5 May, the Second Senate of the Federal Constitutional Court granted several constitutional complaints directed against the Public Sector Purchase Programme (PSPP) of the European Central Bank (ECB). The Court found that the Federal Government and the German Bundestag violated the complainants’ rights under Art. 38(1) first sentence in conjunction with Art. 20(1) and (2), and Art. 79(3) of the Basic Law (Grundgesetz – GG) by failing to take steps challenging that the ECB, in its decisions on the adoption and implementation of the PSPP, neither assessed nor substantiated that the measures provided for in these decisions satisfy the principle of proportionality.

This seminar considers how the decision fits with the other major European Monetary Union decisions and ongoing questions concerning the role of the European Central Bank; the broader economic implications of the German Federal Constitutional Court’s decision for the ECB’s independence and for the Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme; as well as constitutional questions such as supremacy of EU law and the role of judicial dialogue in the EU constitutional order.

Chair: Professor Catherine Barnard

Speakers:

Dr Alicia Hinarejos
Dr Markus Gehring
Professor Michael Waibel

This was the first CELS online webinar. For more information see the CELS website at:

http://www.cels.law.cam.ac.uk/