Asteris Pliakos, Professor an der Athens University of Economics and Business, wird am 24. Juni einen Gastvortrag halten. Einen kurzen Einblick in sein Thema gibt die folgende kurze Zusammenfassung.

The evolution of EU law has largely taken place on the basis of a lively intercourse between the Court of Justice and the national courts of the Member States, particularly when it comes to the delimitation of competences in the interpretation and application of EU law. These issues arose once again in the wake of the eminent ruling of the German Constitutional Court (GCC) on the constitutionality of the national act approving the Treaty of Lisbon.
While accepting the constitutionality of the Lisbon Treaty, the GCC stressed the existence of absolute limits to the process of European integration linked to the principle of democracy and the inviolable core of national sovereignty. At the same time, it asserted its intention to increase its control over the respect of the principle of conferral via the introduction of the ultra vires doctrine.
However, it was never actually applied in practice. The GCC appeared reluctant to exercise its reserve power in the context of constitutional complaints aimed at the declaration of invalidity of EU law. Moreover, following the Honeywell ruling, the GCC retreated to a very restrictive interpretation of this doctrine rendering its application very remote. That’s because the GCC’s order for referral with respect to the European Central Bank’s OMT program (14.1.2014) came as a surprise.
For the first time, the GCG declares within the framework of an ultra vires review a manifest and structurally significant transgression of powers by an EU institution. For the fist time, the competences of the central Bank are analyzed by a national constitutional court and limited in view of the democratic principle. As a matter of principle, the preliminary reference constitutes a welcome and long awaited event with significant practical and symbolical importance.
It will inaugurate a new era in the institutional relationships of the two courts. However, the reference attempts to impose its own interpretation of EU law. This is certainly incompatible with the European rule of law, the European Central Bank’s independence and the GCC’s own mission.

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