In its ruling on the ECB's quantitative easing operation, the German Constitutional Court “did not call into question” the primacy of European Union law, German Deputy Minister for European Affairs, Michael Roth, said on Tuesday 1 September.
According to the minister, who presented the priorities of the German EU Council Presidency in the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, “the judicial order at Community level is certainly not being called into question in Germany by anyone”.
Speaking on behalf of Charles Goerens (EPP, Luxembourg) and Pedro Silva Pereira (S&D, Portugal), Mr Roth said the Karlsruhe court had challenged the proportionate nature of the mass buyback of mainly public securities launched in 2015. He said he was pleased that in the meantime the questions raised had been answered by the ECB and the German authorities (see EUROPE 12516/17).
Questioned on Monday 31 August by EUROPE, the European Commission said it had still not finalised its legal analysis of the agreement.
In May, the Karlsruhe Court gave the ECB three months to justify the proportionality of quantitative easing, failing which the Bundesbank would be required, in the absence of a satisfactory response after this deadline, to withdraw from the operation, which the Court of Justice of the European Union had itself validated in December 2018 (see EUROPE 12480/17, 12157/28). (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)