On European Macroeconomic Integration and the Ensuing Clash of Courts: Apropos the German Constitutional Court Ruling on the ECB’s Public Sector Purchase Program
BY FERNANDO LOSADA
Abstract – This short comment reveals the structural consequences resulting from the conflicting relationship between European law and macroeconomic integration. While the EU legal order was defined and shaped according to the concrete features required for the development and consolidation of the common market, in macroeconomic integration the role and function of law is different – precisely because its substantive content and formal features are out of alignment. The consequences of this mismatch are only now fully visible: political actors can resort to legal procedures, conveniently shaped to conform to microeconomic integration (preliminary reference), to promote by legal means their own macroeconomic agenda. This results in a clash of courts, each protecting their respective legal order on grounds of competence or primacy. Paradoxically, following a strict legal reasoning will only aggravate this legal conundrum. Hence, the answer must be political.
Keywords – Macroeconomic integration, EU legal order, German Constitutional Court, European Court of Justice, Public Sector Purchase Program