Suchergebnisse

Moritz Schularick: Der entzauberte Staat - Was Deutschland aus der Pandemie lernen muss. München: C.H. Beck 2021. 978-3-406-77782-0

While the Court of Justice of the European Union has approved the European financial assistance schemes, the haircut of public creditors appears as a possible next step of escalation in the euro debt crisis. This article explores the legal boundaries set by the EU Treaty on such debt restructuring. Both the no-bailout clause and the prohibition of monetary state financing are at the core of the analysis. In its rulings in Pringle and Gauweiler, the Court specified the meaning of these provisions in relation to the conditions governing financial assistance programs. The analysis highlights the limitations set by these norms on the scope of potential modes of haircuts on public creditors. We find that a haircut on nominal debt would infringe the no-bailout clause and the involvement of the ECB would violate the ban on monetary state financing. However, there remain other forms of "soft haircuts", such as the lowering of interest rates and the extension of terms, which may be compatible with EU law. ; The ADEMU Working Paper Series is being supported by the European Commission Horizon 2020 European Union funding for Research & Innovation, grant agreement No 649396.

In the economic policy domain, calls for insurance-type cooperation within the European Monetary Union (EMU) have frequently been made. Insurance-type cooperation relates to the debate about macroeconomic stabilization tools helping to absorb asymmetric shocks within EMU. Adopting a legal perspective, this article aims explores the scope offered under the current EU treaties in establishing such cooperation mechanisms. Among the broad variety of policy proposals, we focus particularly on both a permanent EU unemployment scheme and a shock-based insurance. We identify the potential legal basis for these insurance schemes highlighting differences in legal feasibility given their specific design. We also discuss the endowment of insurance funds setting out four different funding modes under the EU treaties or on intergovernmental basis. We show that legal scope for insurance schemes is limited. Fully-fledged unemployment insurance schemes are likely to overstretch the boundaries of the EU treaties. More narrowly designed, however, such schemes are rather likely to be feasible if set up as shock-based mechanisms, where the gravity of the economic shocks is significant. ; The ADEMU Working Paper Series is being supported by the European Commission Horizon 2020 European Union funding for Research & Innovation, grant agreement No 649396.