The European Commission did not initiate a formal infringement proceeding against Germany when the German Constitutional Court questioned the primacy of EU law in challenging the proportionality of the ECB’s quantitative easing operation in a judgment in May 2020 (see EUROPE 12480/17).
Despite its discretion on the issue, however, the Commission recognises that the problem has not been resolved. It has therefore instigated a number of technical meetings to consult with the German authorities.
“We have asked the German authorities to make a formal proposal on ways to ensure that Germany complies with EU law on this issue”, said Christian Wigand, a spokesperson for the Commission, on Monday 29 March. He indicated that the Commission had received a letter from Germany, dated the end of February, which it was examining.
The Commission does not seem to have excluded the possibility of Germany proposing a regulatory or legislative initiative or the Karlsruhe Court developing case law.
On Friday 26 March, the Karlsruhe Court suspended the German process for ratifying the ‘own resources to the EU budget’ decision (see EUROPE 12688/2). (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)