Germany’s Constitutional Court yesterday said a last-minute legal challenge by a leading euroskeptic politician would not delay its hotly awaited verdict on key euro crisis tools.
“The date fixed for the ruling” on the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) rescue fund and EU fiscal pact today “will go ahead as planned,” the court said in a statement.
That means that at 10am today, the eight scarlet-robed judges of the Verfassungsgericht will decide whether German President Joachim Gauck can sign into law the ESM and the European fiscal pact.
Photo: EPA
The German parliament already voted in favor of both with a two-thirds majority at the end of June.
However, Gauck held off from completing the ratification process in the face of legal challenges filed by the far-left Die Linke party, a citizens’ initiative group called “More Democracy” and a well-known euroskeptic from German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s CSU Bavarian sister party, Peter Gauweiler.
In an attempt to delay today’s ruling, Gauweiler filed a new complaint at the weekend, arguing that the European Central Bank’s decision to launch a new bond-buying program had moved the goalposts and that the court must now first decide whether the bond purchase program is legal before it can rule on the constitutionality of the ESM rescue fund.
The Constitutional Court held an emergency session on Monday to decide whether to delay its planned ruling today in the face of Gauweiler’s latest challenge.
Gauweiler and the other groups argue that the ESM — the EU’s permanent 500 billion euro (US$630-billion) rescue fund — and the fiscal pact are incompatible with Germany’s Grundgesetz, or Basic Law, because they are effectively forcing Germany to surrender its budgetary sovereignty without the necessary democratic backing.
Meanwhile, billionaire financier George Soros said on Monday that the eurozone was edging ever closer to a solution to its debt crisis.
Speaking in Berlin at an event organized by the Institute for Media and Communications Policy, Soros said: “I am happy to note that the political debate in Germany has shifted in favor of saving the euro.”
He was referring to the EU summit in June, where leaders agreed to allow the eurozone bailout fund to help stricken banks, and the European Central Bank’s decision last week to buy the bonds of debt-wracked countries.
“Both were made possible by the support of Chancellor Angela Merkel,” Soros said.
In an essay appearing in several publications over the weekend, the 82-year-old suggested that Germany should either accept its role as de facto leader of the eurozone or leave the bloc altogether.
If Germany left the euro, the value of the currency shared by the rest of the bloc would depreciate sharply, Soros said, making their exports more attractive and slowly becoming more competitive.
“Europe would escape from the looming depression,” he said.
Soros added that today’s decision by Germany’s Constitutional Court on the legality of the ESM bailout fund and the EU’s fiscal pact for greater budget discipline might prevent the German leadership role he recommends.
“In that case, Germany would have to hold a referendum to decide whether to lead or leave,” he said.
DIVIDED VIEWS: Although the Fed agreed on holding rates steady, some officials see no rate cuts for this year, while 10 policymakers foresee two or more cuts There are a lot of unknowns about the outlook for the economy and interest rates, but US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled at least one thing seems certain: Higher prices are coming. Fed policymakers voted unanimously to hold interest rates steady at a range of 4.25 percent to 4.50 percent for a fourth straight meeting on Wednesday, as they await clarity on whether tariffs would leave a one-time or more lasting mark on inflation. Powell said it is still unclear how much of the bill would fall on the shoulders of consumers, but he expects to learn more about tariffs
NOT JUSTIFIED: The bank’s governor said there would only be a rate cut if inflation falls below 1.5% and economic conditions deteriorate, which have not been detected The central bank yesterday kept its key interest rates unchanged for a fifth consecutive quarter, aligning with market expectations, while slightly lowering its inflation outlook amid signs of cooling price pressures. The move came after the US Federal Reserve held rates steady overnight, despite pressure from US President Donald Trump to cut borrowing costs. Central bank board members unanimously voted to maintain the discount rate at 2 percent, the secured loan rate at 2.375 percent and the overnight lending rate at 4.25 percent. “We consider the policy decision appropriate, although it suggests tightening leaning after factoring in slackening inflation and stable GDP growth,”
Meta Platforms Inc offered US$100 million bonuses to OpenAI employees in an unsuccessful bid to poach the ChatGPT maker’s talent and strengthen its own generative artificial intelligence (AI) teams, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has said. Facebook’s parent company — a competitor of OpenAI — also offered “giant” annual salaries exceeding US$100 million to OpenAI staffers, Altman said in an interview on the Uncapped with Jack Altman podcast released on Tuesday. “It is crazy,” Sam Altman told his brother Jack in the interview. “I’m really happy that at least so far none of our best people have decided to take them
As they zigzagged from one machine to another in the searing African sun, the workers were covered in black soot. However, the charcoal they were making is known as “green,” and backers hope it can save impoverished Chad from rampant deforestation. Chad, a vast, landlocked country of 19 million people perched at the crossroads of north and central Africa, is steadily turning to desert. It has lost more than 90 percent of its forest cover since the 1970s, hit by climate change and overexploitation of trees for household uses such as cooking, officials say. “Green charcoal” aims to protect what
RSS