The German Federal Constitutional Court may take longer than expected to decide on a request by plaintiffs that it issue a temporary injunction blocking Germany from signing up to Europe's permanent bailout fund and the fiscal pact.
Court President Andreas Vosskuhle announced at a public hearing on Tuesday that the court would undertake a "constitutionally sensible assessment" of the legal complaints that may go beyond normal procedures in weighing temporary injunctions. People who took part in the hearing said it could now take the court up to three months just to decide on whether to issue the injunction. It would then take considerably longer than that for it to reach its verdict on the substance of the complaint -- whether Germany is handing over too much sovereignty to European authorities.
The slower-than-usual injunction procedure means a further delay in launching the €500 billion ($613 billion) European Stability Mechanism (ESM), which was to have gone into operation on July 1 but has been stalled by the legal complaints in Germany. Uncertainty about the court's verdict has raised doubts about whether Europe will get the extra firepower it needs to combat the debt crisis.
The German parliament ratified the treaties to launch the ESM and the fiscal pact on debt limits on June 29. But President Joachim Gauck has refrained from signing them into law while the court hears objections from politicians and academics who argue that the measures will infringe on the constitutional role of parliament to decide how taxpayers' money is spent.
2 comments:
The Financial Services Authority is expected to publish a critical report into so-called "packaged accounts" over the next two weeks which will demand changes to the way they are sold.
The accounts, which usually include insurance cover and other benefits such as roadside assistance, are used by more than 10 million people across the UK but experts believe many have been pushed inappropriately to customers who do not need the cover.
Although the City Regulator is not expected to fine high street lenders, its new guidelines could lead to compensation claims from millions of customers.
The accounts are seen as a way for banks to move away from the "free banking" model as they struggle to find new sources of funding.
The idea doesn't seem to have gone down well. On Thursday, Greek Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras indicated that the leaders of the three parties represented in the country's governing coalition had agreed to ask for more time to make billions in cuts that have been demanded in exchange for emergency international aid. Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras also said this week that he would request that the deadline be pushed back.
But on Friday, the response from Germany and elsewhere would seem to be a resounding no. Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert said that "neither the content nor the timeframe of the memorandum are up for debate," using shorthand for the austerity agreement between Athens and its creditors. According to a report in Friday's Rheinische Post newspaper, the chancellor would consider a postponement of "a few weeks" at the most. The paper cites anonymous government sources.
The Chancellery was echoed by the other two parties in Merkel's governing coalition. Speaking to German public radio station Deutschlandfunk on Friday morning, Economy Minister Philipp Rösler, of the Free Democrats, said "I have the feeling that the troika's patience is slowly coming to an end," referring to the trio made up of the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund. He also called into question whether Greece is even capable of being reformed to the degree necessary. "Our experience has, at the very least, made me skeptical," he said.
Post a Comment