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Pringle V. Ireland. Case C-370/12

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Christoph W. Herrmann*
Affiliation:
University of Passau, Germany

Extract

In the judgment Pringle v. Ireland, the full Court of Justice of the European Union (Court or ECJ) upheld the validity of the decision of the European Council enabling the simplified amendment of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union(TFEU). In its Decision 2011/199/EU, the Council had provided for the establishment of a permanent European Stability Mechanism (ESM) by those member states of the European Union (Union or EU) that had adopted the euroas their common currency and legal tender. The Court also found in this judgment that those member states had not violated EU law by negotiating and concluding the Treaty Establishing the European Stability Mechanism (ESM Treaty). The Court based the latter finding on the long-awaited clarification of the scope and content of the TFEU’s “no-bailout clause” (Art. 125(1)), which had been the subject of intense controversies among legal scholars, in particular in Germany.

Type
International Decisions
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 2013

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References

1 Pringle v. Ireland, Case C-370/12 (Eur. Ct. Justice Nov. 27, 2012), at http://curia.europa.eu.

2 Consolidated Version of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, Sept. 5, 2008, 2008 O.J. (C 115) 47, available at http://eur-lex.europa.eu. This is the version of the TFEU referred to by the Court in this case.

3 Treaty Establishing the European Stability Mechanism, Feb. 2, 2012, at http://www.esm.europa.eu/pdf/esm_treaty_en.pdf.

4 Statement by the Heads of State or Government of the European Union (Feb. 11, 2010); Statement by the Heads of State or Government of the Euro Area (Mar. 25, 2010), at http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/ec/112856.pdf, and 113563.pdf, respectively.

5 Council Decision 2011/199/EU, Art. 1, 2011 O.J. (L 91) 1, 2.

6 Consolidated Version of the Treaty on European Union, Art. 48(6), Sept. 5, 2008, as amended by Treaty of Lisbon, Dec. 13, 2007, 2008 O.J. (C 115) 13, available at http://eur-lex.europa.eu. This is the version of the TEU referred to by the Court in this case.

7 For a more detailed account of the content of the ESM Treaty, see Judgment, paras. 8–23, and Ohler, Christoph, The European Stability Mechanism: The Long Road to Financial Stability in the Euro Area, 54 Ger. Y.B. Int’l L. 47 (2011)Google Scholar.

8 Pringle v. Ireland, [2012] IESC 47, No. 339/2012, at http://www.courts.ie.

9 Id., attachment, pt. VI.

10 see Bundesverfassungsgericht [Federal Constitutional Court], Sept. 12, 2012, docket nos. 2 BvR 1390/12, 2 BvR 1421/12, 2 BvR 1438/12, 2 BvR 1439/12, 2 BvR 1440/12, 2 BvE 6/12, at http://www.bundesverfassungsgericht.de/pressemitteilungen/brg12-067en.html (links to full German text and extracts in English).

11 Pringle v. Ireland, Case 370/12, View of Advocate General Juliane Kokott, para. 172 (Oct. 26, 2012) (quoting Decision of the Representatives of the Governments of the Member States of the European Union, Annex, Council Cover Note, Doc. 12114/11 (June 24, 2011)), at http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:62012CP0370:EN:HTML.

12 Id., paras. 175, 181.

13 Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union, Mar. 2, 2012, at http://european-council.europa.eu/media/639235/st00tscg26_en12.pdf. All EU member states except the United Kingdom and the Czech Republic are parties to the treaty.