Answer given by President von der Leyen on behalf of the European Commission

18.11.2020

In reaction to the judgment of the German Constitutional Court on 5 May 2020 regarding the Public Sector Purchase Programme (PSPP), the President of the Commission has stressed the following in a statement of 10 May 2020: ‘The European Commission upholds three basic principles: that the Union’s monetary policy is a matter of exclusive competence; that EC law has primacy over national law and that rulings of the European Court of Justice are binding on all national courts. The final word on EC law is always spoken in Luxembourg. Nowhere else. The European Commission’s task is to safeguard the proper functioning of the Euro system and the Union’s legal system. We are now analysing the ruling of the German Constitutional Court in detail. And we will look into possible next steps, which may include the option of infringement proceedings’.

Article 17 of the Treaty on European Union grants to the Commission, as the guardian of the Treaties, the power to ensure the application and implementation of EC law in all Member States. In that context, the Commission may open infringement procedures if it considers that a Member State has failed to fulfil an obligation under the Treaties. The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has recognised that the Commission enjoys wide discretion whether to initiate infringement proceedings.

At this stage, the Commission has not decided whether to open infringement procedures.