The European Court of Justice, the European Central Bank, and the Supremacy of EU Law
| Date | 01 February 2016 |
| Author | Federico Fabbrini |
| Published date | 01 February 2016 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1023263X1602300101 |
| Subject Matter | Guest Editor's Introduction |
23 MJ 1 (2016) 3
GUEST EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION
THE EUROPEAN COURT OF JUSTICE,
THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK,
AND THE SUPREMACY OF EU LAW
F F*
§1. INTRODUCTION
On 16June 2015 the Court of Justice of the European Union (Court of Justice) delivered
its ruling in t he Gauweiler case.1 Multiple reasons make this judgment a mi lestone in the
case law of the Court. On t he one hand, in this case the Court of Justice re viewed a key
measure adopted by the European Central Bank (ECB) in its e orts to tackle the Euro-
crisis. Following the commitment of the ECB President Mario Draghi to do ‘whatever
it takes to save the euro’2 in September 2012, the ECB launched the Outright Monetar y
Transaction (OMT) programme.3 With this programme, the ECB committed to buy
on the secondary market government bonds of Eurozone countries, on the condition
that they entered into a programme of nancial assistance with the European Stability
Mechanism (ESM).4 e ECB justi ed the OMT programme as a way to ensure the
smooth transm ission of its monetary policy stimulus , which had become ine ective due
to the fear of a Eurozone break-up. Although OMT was never put into operation, the
programme is largely credited for playing a key role in cooling o the Eurozone crisis,
being perhaps the most successf ul policy response to it. Hence, in Gauweiler, the Court
of Justice was asked to rule on a cr ucial aspect of Economic and Monetar y Union (EMU),
considering the constitut ionality of its most recent legal and policy developments.
On the other hand, in Gauweiler the Court of Justice answered the rst
preliminary reference ever made by the German Federal Constitutional Court
* Associate Profes sor of European & Internationa l Law, Faculty of Law, University of Cope nhagen. is
research is suppor ted by the Danish Nat ional Research Fou ndation Grant no. DNRF105 and c onducted
under the auspices of iCourts (Center of Excellence for international courts), the Danish National
Research Found ation’s Center of Excellence for Internat ional Courts.
1 Case C-62/14 Gauweiler, EU:C:2015:400.
2 Mario Dragh i, Speech at the ‘Global Inve stment’ Conference, London , 26July 2012.
3 ECB Press Release , ‘Technical Features of Ou tright Monetary Tran saction’, 6September 2012.
4 See Treaty Establ ishing the Europea n Stability Mechan ism, 2February 2012.
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