Newsalert | Europe first: the judgment of the German Federal Constitutional Court on the Public Sector Purchase Programme (PSPP) of the European Central Bank (ECB) and the reply of the EU Institutions.

In its judgment of 5 May 2020, the Second Senate of the German Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht) granted several constitutional complaints directed against the Public Sector Purchase Programme (PSPP) of the European Central Bank (ECB). The Court found that the Federal Government and the German Bundestag violated the complainants’ rights under Art. 38(1) first sentence in conjunction with Art. 20(1) and (2), and Art. 79(3) of the Basic Law (Grundgesetz – GG) by failing to take steps challenging that the ECB, in its decisions on the adoption and implementation of the PSPP, neither assessed nor substantiated that the measures provided for in these decisions satisfy the principle of proportionality. In the related press release the Federal Constitutional Court clarified that the decision at issue does not concern any financial assistance measures taken by the European Union or the ECB in the context of the current coronavirus crisis.