17 December 2019

ECB: Building bridges: central banking law in an interconnected world

The ECB Legal Conference produced reflections on the Court of Justice and EMU, Libra, the SSM, data sharing between authorities and the standard of review of ECB decisions, among other legal issues.

EMU is a political project of fundamental importance to the European Union that has led to greater integration among those Member States that have participated in it and, in doing so, has generated considerable economic efficiencies within the internal market.

The euro area crisis was, however, a severe setback that called into question the very existence of the monetary union.70 In the context of the EU’s response to that crisis, EMU has undergone a rigorous overhaul, the consequences of which have, in certain respects, led to significant institutional developments that go beyond traditional conceptions of the EU’s constitutional framework.

In particular, the exercise of jurisdiction by the Court of Justice, albeit in certain limited situations, in respect of acts adopted by national authorities is a new departure for EU law, but one which is, in certain circumstances, both necessary and fully justified by the primary law provisions that are applicable.

The Court of Justice, together with the courts and tribunals of the Member States, have also been called up to safeguard respect for EU primary law in the context of that same crisis. This required the Court of Justice, first and foremost, to strike a balance between, on the one hand, the ECB’s independence under the Treaties and, on the other hand, its accountability to act in accordance with its mandate to maintain price stability.

The focus of the Court of Justice on the proportionality of the policy measures adopted to the contingencies that they were designed to meet was also of pivotal importance to that safeguarding of the constitutional architecture of EMU.

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