Following the adoption by the German Bundestag of a motion approving Quantitative Easing (PSPP), the European Commission indicated on Friday 3 July that it had not yet finalised its analysis of the ruling by the German Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe, which in early May had called into question the proportionate nature of the PSPP operation (see EUROPE 12480/17).
“The analysis of the different aspects of the ruling is still ongoing within the European Commission” and the Commission will only communicate “once the way forward is chosen”, said its spokesman, Eric Mamer.
On Thursday evening, the Bundestag adopted by a large majority the motion tabled by the CDU/CSU, SPD, FDP and the Greens parliamentary groups that the requirement of the Federal Constitutional Court to carry out a proportionality test in relation to the PSPP was “fully complied with”. Irrespective of this, the German Bundestag is committed to assuming its responsibility for the ECB’s monetary policy decisions at all times.
MEPs rejected the AfD party’s motion, which called for reports to be sent to the Bundestag every three months by the Bundesbank on banking union and every six months by the ECB on monetary policy in the euro area.
The Bundestag’s motion extends into the parliamentary sphere the action of the German government, which is keen to bring this matter to a swift conclusion at a time when Germany has just taken over the rotating Presidency of the EU Council.
Earlier this week, German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz had himself said, in a letter addressed to the president of the lower house of Germany’s parliament, that the ECB’s massive secondary market interventions in the context of the PSPP operation had shown “plausible proportionality” (see EUROPE 12516/17). For the German government, the Bundesbank “is entitled to continue to participate in their implementation”.
The German authorities are convinced of this: the fears of the German Constitutional Court have been allayed and the case is closed. They do not envisage that the Commission can take the initiative to enforce the primacy of EU law over national law by launching infringement proceedings against Germany by 5 August.
See Bundestag motion: https://bit.ly/2AvRVj0 (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)