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Ambrose Evans-Pritchard: Udo di Fabio, the constitutional court’s euro expert until last year, said the
explosive case on the legality of the European Monetary Union rescue
machinery could provoke a showdown between Germany and the European Central
Bank (ECB) and ultimately cause the collapse of monetary union.
“In so far as the ECB is acting 'ultra vires’, and these violations are deemed
prolonged and serious, the court must decide whether Germany can remain a
member of monetary union on constitutional grounds,” he wrote in a report
for the German Foundation for Family Businesses.
“His arguments are dynamite,” said Mats Persson from Open Europe, which is
issuing its own legal survey on the case on Monday.
Dr Di Fabio wrote the court’s provisional ruling last year on the European
Stability Mechanism (ESM), the €500bn (£425bn) bail-out fund. His comments
offer a rare window into thinking on the eight-strong panel in Karlsruhe,
loosely split 4:4 on European Union issues.
The court is holding two days of hearings, though it may not issue a ruling
for several weeks. The key bone of contention is the ECB’s back-stop
support for the Spanish and Italian bond markets or Outright Monetary
Transactions (OMT), the “game-changer” plan that stopped the Spanish
debt crisis spiralling out of control last July and vastly reduced the risk
of a euro break-up.
The case stems from legal complaints by 37,000 citizens,