The Unbearable Heaviness of the German Constitutional Judge on the Judgment of the Second Chamber of the German Federal Constitutional Court of 5 May 2020 Concerning the European Central Bank’s PSPP Programme

Abstract

The reasoning of the German Constitutional Court judges to prohibit the Bundesbank from buying Sate securities on the secondary market if the ECB does not demonstrate within three months the proportionality of its decisions under the PSPP programme is not sustainable. Instead, the judges, who demonstrate unfounded intellectual arrogance in their claim to interpret EU law, make manifest errors in applying the principle of proportionality to the delimitation of competences between the Union and the Member States. They also make methodological errors in their application of the principle of proportionality to ECB decisions, while highlighting their prejudices in the field of monetary and economic policy.

This paper has been published online on https://ceridap.eu/the-unbearable-heaviness-of-the-german-constitutional-judge-on-the-judgment-of-the-second-chamber-of-the-german-federal-constitutional-court-of-5-may-2020-concerning-the-european-central-banks-pspp/

The French version is available on http://rivista.eurojus.it/wp-content/uploads/pdf/Ziller-CorteCost-tedesca-PSPP.pdf

The Italian versio is available on https://www.aisdue.eu/jacques-ziller-linsopportabile-pesantezza-del-giudice-costituzionale-tedesco-2/

Keywords: European Union, EU law, Supremacy, CJEU, German Constitutional Court

JEL Classification: K33, K39, K42