Udo di Fabio, who served as a judge on Germany's Constitutional Court (GCC) from 1999-2011, gave a speech which is a bit of a piece of art. Below are a couple of his themes:
* di Fabio predicts that the GCC is unlikely to rule against the OMT outright. Instead, he says that "the particular issue Karlsruhe will be looking at is national budget sovereignty".
* "Budgetary self-determination of a nation is fundamental and cannot be transferred".
* "Parliaments were put in place so monarchs cannot use people's money as they please. National parliaments have to be sovereign in controlling the use of taxpayers' money".
* "If Rome decides on an expenditure, it cannot be that the Netherlands and Germany are held liable for it".
While all of this makes a lot of sense, in principle, it is incredibly removed from the reality in today's Eurozone. Or do Greeks really feel that they have 'budgetary self-determination'?
'Budgetary self-determination cannot be transferred' --- what about current EU intentions to move much of budgetary self-determination to Brussels?
If the Netherlands and Germany could not have been held liable for expenditure decision of, say, Greece, financial history would have taken a completely different turn in May 2010. Does Udo di Fabio not know what turn financial history took in May 2010?
As I said above, di Fabio's themes are really a piece of art!
* di Fabio predicts that the GCC is unlikely to rule against the OMT outright. Instead, he says that "the particular issue Karlsruhe will be looking at is national budget sovereignty".
* "Budgetary self-determination of a nation is fundamental and cannot be transferred".
* "Parliaments were put in place so monarchs cannot use people's money as they please. National parliaments have to be sovereign in controlling the use of taxpayers' money".
* "If Rome decides on an expenditure, it cannot be that the Netherlands and Germany are held liable for it".
While all of this makes a lot of sense, in principle, it is incredibly removed from the reality in today's Eurozone. Or do Greeks really feel that they have 'budgetary self-determination'?
'Budgetary self-determination cannot be transferred' --- what about current EU intentions to move much of budgetary self-determination to Brussels?
If the Netherlands and Germany could not have been held liable for expenditure decision of, say, Greece, financial history would have taken a completely different turn in May 2010. Does Udo di Fabio not know what turn financial history took in May 2010?
As I said above, di Fabio's themes are really a piece of art!
I do not see di Fabio at distance from reality in EU. His remarks re the upcoming verdict are only applicable for the relation between Germany and EU.
ReplyDeleteThere is no doubt that Greece has lost budgetary self-determination by accepting money from the EU, this was part of that contract.
The current EU intentions to move much of budgetary self-determination to Brussels will find also find it's limits by the upcoming verdict.
Sry, I do not understand the following paragraph.
H.Trickler
Correction. Germany et al were not held liable for the debts of Greece. They chose instead to use the debts of Greece as a vehicle for saving their bankrupt banks.
ReplyDeleteNaturally you will not publish this.
I take it you are new to my blog. Otherwise, you would know that I have published exactly that!
Delete