The financial and sovereign debt crisis has had a great impact on the relationship between the European Central Bank (ECB) and the Member States of the Eurozone, a relationship traditionally studied from the perspective of central bank independence. This article takes a different perspective on that relationship, namely that of central bank intervention in Member State economic policy making. It focuses on the pressure and influence exercised by the ECB on the Member States of the eurozone. The two perspectives combined reveal the nature of the ever more frequent and intense interaction between the ECB and the Member States of the eurozone. In the crisis, several different forms can be identified of ECB pressure on eurozone Member States to adopt reforms in the areas of fiscal policy and structural reforms, marking a shift from interaction to central bank intervention. This ECB intervention is parallel to an equally unprecedented intervention by the collective of eurozone Member States in the economic policy of several Member States through the economic policy conditionality linked to financial assistance. The article analyses several instances of ECB intervention, offers an explanation and a theoretical framework for normatively assessing it. The main risk identified for the ECB in this article is that of being perceived as a political or politicized actor, although it is acknowledged that the ECB is confronted with a difficult balancing act. The ECB should be more cautious in its approach, the further an issue is from its core mandate of securing price stability.
I-50014 San Domenico di Fiesole (FI) Italy www.eui.eu cadmus.eui.eu Constitutional Change through Euro-Crisis Law This paper was first delivered at a conference held at the European University Institute in October 2014 presenting some initial results of the project on Constitutional Change through Euro Crisis Law. This project is a study of the impact of Euro Crisis Law (by which is meant the legal instruments adopted at European or international level in reaction to the Eurozone crisis) on the national legal and constitutional structures of the 28 Member States of the European Union with the aim of investigating the impact of Euro Crisis law on the constitutional balance of powers and the protection of fundamental and social rights at national level. An open-access research tool (eurocrisislaw.eui.eu) has been created, based on a set of reports for each Member State, that constitutes an excellent resource for further, especially comparative, studies of the legal status and implementation of Euro Crisis law at national level, the interactions between national legal systems and Euro Crisis law and the constitutional challenges that have been faced. The project is based at the EUI Law Department and is funded by the EUI Research Council (2013-2015).
Appointment and Censure of the European Commission — Development of Rules of Constitutional Practice — Parliamentary committee hearings 2004 — Guidelines on Approval Procedure of the Commission — Framework Agreement 2005 between European Parliament and Commission — Clash between Parliament and Council on control of European Commission — Responsibility of individual Commissioners.
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