Advocate General proposes substantial limits to ECB power
Advocate General, Cruz Villalón, has arrived at general conclusions in the case C-62/14. According to the Advocate General, the OMT- programme is fully subject to the fundamental prohibition of monetary financing by ECB (see art. 123 TFEU). So ECB’s intervention on the secondary market very closely after the bond issue on the primary market remains clearly prohibited. The implementation of the OMT-programme therefore is not allowed to distort the market prices or to prevent competition on the market of sovereign debt. Nevertheless, ECB’s legal control by law courts should be inspired by judicial restraint. (read more …)