Euro-Zone Bailout face new challenge in EU Highest Court

Interesting to see a new challenger to EZ Bailout plans. What is even more peculiar is that the person who filed the complaint is neither German, Spanish, nor Greek. Whether Thomas Pringle is simply seeking political attention, or really fighting against the Bailout plans due to economic concerns remains to be seen.

The euro area’s 500 billion-euro ($652 billion) bailout fund faces another test as the European Union’s highest court weighs claims that the firewall violates EU law and should be banned in its current form.

A complaint by Thomas Pringle, an independent member of the Irish parliament, has reached the Luxembourg-based EU Court of Justice, which has the power to topple the European Stability Mechanism, or ESM. A hearing is scheduled for today, with a ruling possible as soon as the end of the year under a fast- track procedure.

The euro area’s 500 billion-euro ($652 billion) bailout fund faces another test as the European Union’s highest court weighs claims that the firewall violates EU law and should be banned in its current form. Photographer: Nicolas Bouvy/EPA

The EU court case follows a separate decision last month by Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe not to block the ESM. The German ruling handed a victory to Chancellor Angela Merkel, who championed the bailout facility as vital to save the euro area from a fiscal meltdown as it lurches between crises.

“The ECJ is likely to see the ESM for what it is: a necessary complement to the existing European monetary union structures, plugging a hole in the existing treaties,” said Marco Incerti, an analyst at the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels. “Why would they consider it unlawful?”

The Luxembourg-based EU court has engaged its full force of 27 judges to consider the challenge — the first time this has happened in a case referred by a national tribunal.

Via – Bloomberg

 

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