Thursday June 10, 2021
After a dispute over the ECB ruling
Gauweiler criticizes the violent EU
Because the Federal Constitutional Court has questioned the ECB’s bond purchases, the EU Commission has opened infringement proceedings against Germany. The former CSU politician Gauweiler warns the federal government against horse trading with Brussels and announces a constitutional complaint.
The former CSU politician Peter Gauweiler is threatening a new constitutional complaint in the dispute over the power of the Federal Constitutional Court in Europe. According to a report by the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”, the reason is the infringement proceedings that the EU Commission initiated against Germany on Wednesday. The Karlsruhe judges should be forced to give in and so the commission is exceeding its competencies, Gauweiler told the newspaper. In legal terms, such an act of presumption of competence is called an act of “ultra vires”. The federal government must therefore reject the infringement proceedings, demanded Gauweiler.
“The infringement proceedings initiated by the EU Commission represent another act of ultra vires,” explained the lawyer. “The EU Commission declares the violation of the electoral law, the rule of law and the unchangeable constitutional identity of the Basic Law by EU institutions, which was determined by the Federal Constitutional Court in its judgment of May 5, 2020, to be factually irrelevant.”
As part of the infringement proceedings, the Federal Government now has the opportunity to comment. Government spokesman Steffen Seibert announced on Wednesday that the federal government would carefully examine the arguments from Brussels and respond in writing. In Gauweiler’s opinion, there is only one possibility for this answer: the government must “reject this procedure without exception”, it has no discretion in this regard, so it could not agree to a compromise with Brussels, which many are now hoping for, said Gauweiler the FAZ continues.
“Federal government must not tolerate overstepping of competencies”
Gauweiler derives this necessity directly from the controversial Karlsruhe judgment of May last year, which is the cause of the open dispute between the EU and Germany. In this decision, the Federal Constitutional Court expressly stated that constitutional bodies, authorities and courts are not allowed to participate in the creation, implementation, execution or operationalization of “ultra vires” files. “This duty to defend the German constitutional identity is therefore also binding for the federal government in ongoing infringement proceedings,” said Gauweiler.
If the federal government does not comply, he will take action against it: “Today I instructed my representative to file a new constitutional complaint if the federal government or other federal organs did not adequately fulfill this obligation established by the Federal Constitutional Court.”
“European law binds national courts”
Experts had previously also assessed the EU Commission’s infringement proceedings against Germany as a fundamental legal dispute. Since the Federal Constitutional Court in a later decision accepted the reasons given by Brussels for the excessive bond purchases by the European Central Bank, there is actually no longer any disagreement between the view of the European Court of Justice and the position of the Federal Constitutional Court.
The fact that Brussels is still opening proceedings against Germany must therefore be seen as a test of strength. For example, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had not ruled out infringement proceedings just a few days after the Federal Constitutional Court ruling. “Judgments of the European Court of Justice are binding on all national courts,” she declared in May 2020. “The last word on EU law is always spoken in Luxembourg. Nowhere else.”
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