The future of the Eurozone and the role of the German Constitutional Court. Research Papers in Law, 05/2012

[Introduction.] Necessary reforms towards a deepened and increased European shaped economic, financial and budgetary policy, paraphrased with the term “fiscal union”, could possibly reach constitutional limits. In its EFSF judgment1, the German Constitutional Court, following the Lisbon judgment in which certain government tasks were determined as being part of the “constitutional identity”2, connected the budget right of the parliament via the principle of democracy to the eternity clause of Art. 79 para 3 Basic Law. A transfer of essential parts of the budget right of the German Bundestag, which would be in conflict with the German constitution, is said to exist when the determination of the nature and amount of the tax affecting the citizens is largely regulated on the supranational level and thereby deprived of the Bundestag’s right to disposition. A reform of the Economic and Monetary Union that touches the core of the budget right can, according to the German Federal Court, with regard to Art. 79 (3) of the Basic Law only be realized by way of Art. 146 of the Basic Law, thus with a new constitution given by the people that replaces the Basic Law.

The Role of Article 11 TFEU in the Greening of the ECB’s Monetary Policy

The European Green Deal and the European Climate Law highlight the EU’s commitment to strive for carbon neutrality. Considering the magnitude of the global challenge, it is evident that a green transition will not succeed without the efforts of every sector, including financial institutions. Concerns have been raised that central banks may, in fact, contribute to the increase of greenhouse gas emissions and, in consequence, aggravate global warming. This all has currently resulted in a rapid expansion of the debate on the potential role of central banks, and in particular the ECB, to consider climate objectives. In the European context, however, it is often argued that environmental sustainability lies outside the ECB’s traditional core mandate to focus on price stability. This article aims to introduce the environmental integration principle, laid down in Article 11 TFEU, in the ECB’s legal framework, and provide an analysis of the possibilities for and limitations to the greening of the ECB's monetary policy based on this provision. Although Article 11 TFEU has great potential with regards to the greening of sectoral policies, in legal literature, the provision has not gained enough academic attention in terms of the financial sector

The Europeanization of the Bundestag: From Observer to Player? Bertelsmann Studies

Never before has the role of the German Bundestag with regard to European integration been so intensively discussed as during the European financial and debt crisis. However, it is easy to overlook the fact that major changes have come about in the participation of the German Parliament in European policy. On the one hand, this is as a result of the Treaty of Lisbon, which emphasizes the role of national parliaments in Article 12 TEU and grants them additional rights in some fields. On the other hand, it is also because of German law, not least spurred on by the rulings of the Federal Constitutional Court, ranging from its rulings on the European Arrest Warrant in 2005 and the Treaty of Lisbon in 2009 to its rulings on the socalled rescue packages in 2011 and 2012. Upon closer examination of the most recent developments, it thus becomes apparent that the Bundestag’s political actions can now no longer be seen as “empty” as is alleged in most of the more dated specialist literature. The changes in the law over the past few years have enabled the Bundestag to play both a monitoring and participatory role in German European policy

Aktionsplan Resilienz und Demokratie: Wie Deutschland Angriffe auf Demokratie und Gesellschaft abwehren kann

Seit mehreren Jahren stehen die westlichen Demokratien in Europa ebenso wie in Amerika verstärkt unter "digitalem Beschuss". Inländische und ausländische Akteure versuchen mittels hybrider Methoden wie Cyberattacken die öffentliche Meinungsbildung zu ihren Gunsten zu beeinflussen und die Institutionen zu schwächen, um der Demokratie nachhaltig Schaden zuzufügen. Gelingt es nicht, zeitnah eine Antwort auf die neuen Bedrohungen zu finden, droht die Demokratie irreversiblen Schaden zu nehmen. Ziel der Bemühungen muss es sein, die digitale und demokratische Resilienz innerhalb Deutschlands und der EU zu stärken und die Gesellschaften Europas gegen Angriffe aus dem In- und Ausland zu immunisieren

Überlegungen im Lichte der Beschlüsse des BVerfG zum Recht auf Vergessen I und II

Mit seinen Beschlüssen zum »Recht auf Vergessen« (RaV) vom 6. November 2019[1] hat der Erste Senat des BVerfG eine Trendwende im Hinblick auf das Verhältnis von nationalen zu europäischen Grundrechten eingeleitet: Die Charta der Grundrechte der Europäischen Union (GRCh) wird in Abweichung von der bisherigen Rechtsprechung, die von einer strikten Trennung der Prüf- und Zuständigkeitssphären ausging, nunmehr zum unmittelbaren Prüfungsmaßstab für das BVerfG. Ferner wird für Bereiche, in denen das Unionsrecht den Mitgliedstaaten Spielräume lässt, eine widerlegbare Vermutung dafür ausgesprochen, dass die deutschen Grundrechte die Garantie der Unionsgrundrechte in aller Regel mitgewährleisten. Zugleich wird der Weg für eine parallele Anwendung von nationalen und europäischen Grundrechten geebnet. Dem föderalen Verbunddenken entsprechend betont das BVerfG die Kooperation mit dem Gerichtshof der Europäischen Union (EuGH), gleichwohl wird die Frage aufgeworfen, ob es sich damit zur zentralen Kontrollinstanz für die Einhaltung deutscher und europäischer Grundrechte in Deutschland macht