Bad Movie | 91 comments (91 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: What Europe is feasible? (4.00 / 6)

Don't forget the social protocol in the Treaty of Maastricht

SOCIAL PROTOCOL
Thanks to the social protocol annexed to the Treaty, Community powers are broadened in the social domain. The United Kingdom is not a signatory of this protocol. Its objectives are:
promotion of employment;
improvement of living and working conditions;
adequate social protection;
social dialogue;
the development of human resources to ensure a high and sustainable level of employment;
the integration of persons excluded from the labour market.

Though everyone else appears to have forgotten, not least the troika wreaking havoc in periphery.

Sweden's finest (and perhaps only) collaborative, leftist e-newspaper Synapze.se

by A swedish kind of death on Wed Sep 21st, 2011 at 06:48:34 AM EST
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Re: What Europe is feasible? (none / 0)

Meanwhile, the German Constitutional Court lays down the law.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Wed Sep 21st, 2011 at 07:05:56 AM EST
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Re: What Europe is feasible? (4.00 / 3)

Again from Buiter's 3 scenarios:

2.3.3.5. The Role of the German Constitutional Court
The German Constitutional Court ruled on September 7, 2011 on whether the German participation in the first Greek bail-out and the EFSF is consistent with the German Basic Law (or German Constitution). We always thought it unlikely that, whatever the technical legal merits of the case, the German Constitutional Court would want to go down in history as the entity that destroyed the European Union. And the Court duly complied. It ruled that the German participation in the first Greek bailout and the EFSF do not have to be rolled back.

(My emphasis)

The Bundesbank doesn't seem to have the same qualms as the Court.

The case before the German Constitutional Court concerned the interpretation of the various `no bailout' Articles in the Treaty. The Court ruled that Germany's participation in the rescue measures had not violated parliament's right to control spending of taxpayer money, and that it did not give a rubber-stamp to the chancellor's office.
The court also noted, however, that its rulings "should not be misinterpreted as a constitutional blank cheque for further rescue packages." It said that "the government is obligated in the cases of large expenditures to obtain the approval of the parliamentary budgetary committee" - a rather manageable nuisance and certainly much less burdensome than having to obtain the approval of the Bundestag.
Even in the case that the German Constitutional Court had mandated a roll-back of German participation, this would hardly have been the end of the matter, on procedural grounds. It is clear that the fate of the EA will not be decided in the courtrooms.

Economics is politics by other means

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Sep 21st, 2011 at 07:11:19 AM EST
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Bad Movie | 91 comments (91 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)