The German Constitutional Court's decision last year to allow Germany's government to accede to the European Stability Mechanism should leave little doubt about how it will rule on the ECB's pledge to purchase distressed eurozone members' sovereign debt. But, in courts, as in the open sea, predictions often prove unreliable.
MUNICH – Germany’s Constitutional Court is preparing what might become the most important decision in its history. Last September, the court allowed the German government to sign the Treaty Establishing the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), the eurozone’s permanent intergovernmental rescue facility. Now, however, it may try to stop the European Central Bank’s so-called outright monetary transactions (OMT) program (the ECB’s pledge to buy, without limit, the government bonds of troubled eurozone countries that subject themselves to the ESM’s conditions).
MUNICH – Germany’s Constitutional Court is preparing what might become the most important decision in its history. Last September, the court allowed the German government to sign the Treaty Establishing the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), the eurozone’s permanent intergovernmental rescue facility. Now, however, it may try to stop the European Central Bank’s so-called outright monetary transactions (OMT) program (the ECB’s pledge to buy, without limit, the government bonds of troubled eurozone countries that subject themselves to the ESM’s conditions).