Commentary:
This unconstitutional bailout is not about rescuing the euro or helping the people of Greece.
It is a bailout for the banksters, looting the people (especially the Germans):
– Former Bundesbank Head Karl Otto Pöhl: Bailout Plan Is All About ‘Rescuing Banks and Rich Greeks’:
Added to this is the fact that, against all its vows, and against an explicit ban within its own constitution, the European Central Bank (ECB) has become involved in financing states.
– France’s Europe Minister Pierre Lellouche: Eurozone Bailout Violates EU Laws:
In an interview with the Financial Times, Pierre Lellouche laid bare the French government’s conviction that the emergency stabilisation scheme agreed earlier this month amounted to a fundamental revision of the European Union’s rules and a leap towards an economic government for the bloc.
“It is an enormous change,” Mr Lellouche said. “It explains some of the reticence.
It is expressly forbidden in the treaties by the famous no bail-out clause. De facto, we have changed the treaty,” he added.
The Bundesbank document offers a withering critique of the deal agreed by EU leaders two weeks ago, saying the plan had been cobbled together without consulting central banks and will lead to monetisation of debt. “It brings problems in respect to stability policy that should not be underestimated.”
The joint rescue between the IMF and the EU would turn the Bundesbank into a “money-printing machine” for the purchase of Greek bonds, according to Rundschau. This would breach the EU’s ‘no-bail clause’.
Is there a solution for Greece? Sure:
– German Professors Challenge Greek Bailout Legislation, Declare it Unconstitutional
– Max Keiser on Greece: ‘The IMF is a Financial Mafia’
– The Solution For Greece (Max Keiser, Matt Taibbi and Catherine Austin Fitts)
And the banksters, not the people, would have to eat the losses.
German High Court Considers Euro Bailout: Is the Rescue Package Constitutional?
Protesters in Athens: If Germany’s highest court issues a temporary injunction on loan guarantees, it could push Greece to the brink.
There are many who raised their eyebrows when the European Union agreed last month to create a €750 billion war chest to help prop up the euro. Many were concerned that it might violate EU rules on direct aid among member states.
In Germany, however, the package has attracted the attention of the country’s highest court, the Federal Constitutional Court. It is currently considering whether to issue a temporary injunction against the country’s contribution to the planned rescue package. If the court rules to issue the injunction, it could temporarily ban the government in Berlin from activating German credit guarantees — at least until the court can rule on their legality.
SPIEGEL reported this weekend that Andreas Vosskuhle, president of the Karlsruhe-based Constitutional Court, sent a letter to the chancellor, her ministers, parliament, the German president, all state governments, as well as the European Central Bank and Germany’s central bank, the Bundesbank, requesting statements addressing a request for a temporary injunction. The request was made by Peter Gauweiler, a member of the German parliament with the conservative Christian Social Union, the sister party to Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats.
His request hardly comes as a surprise. In 2009, Gauweiler filed a suit against the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, which set the stage for wide-ranging European Union reforms, in what became a partially successful challenge. The court ruled that the German parliament must play a greater role in Germany’s decision-making at the EU level — a ruling that could have wide-reaching implications for future European integration.
Multiple Constitutional Challenges
Addressing Gauweiler’s latest constitutional complaint, Berlin said that if the injunction is issued, it could directly result in a Greek bankruptcy. The government also stated that the euro rescue package agreed to by the EU member states in Brussels was “not a legally binding international agreement, but merely a political statement.”
In addition to the complaint by Gauweiler, Constitutional Court officials have confirmed that three further cases have been submitted against the euro rescue package. At some point this week, German constitutional lawyer and financial expert Markus Kerber and his supporters also plan to submit a constitutional complaint. Kerber and his co-plaintiffs want the court to determine whether the German law passed by the Bundestag approving the euro bailout complies with the country’s own constitution. The legislation covers Germany’s share of the bailout, roughly €148 billion in credit guarantees.
Kerber and his supporters plan to challenge the rescue package’s legality under both German rules as well as European law, and they would like to see the German Constitution Court also force the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, the EU’s top judicial body, to address whether the euro bailout is legal under European law.
dsl/spiegel
06/08/2010
Source: Spiegel Online
See also:
– The ECB’s Greek Exposure Is Bigger Than Its Own Capital and Reserves Of (Only) €77.3 Billion
– ECB Buying Up Greek Bonds; German Central Bankers Suspect French Intrigue
– Greek Bailout: Two Secret Exit Clauses – Why Europe Is Now Cheering For Its Own Demise
– Germany: Parliament Votes to Give 66 % of Annual Income Tax Revenue to The Banksters
– Greek Central Bank Accused of Encouraging Naked Short Selling of Greek Bonds
– ECB Resorts to ‘Nuclear Option,’ Intervenes in Bond Market to Fight Euro Crisis
– The Greek Spirit of Resistance Turns Its Guns on The IMF
– Greece Accepts Unprecedented Bailout From EU and IMF, ‘Savage’ Cuts
– Elite Puppet Credit Rating Agencies Playing Big Roll In European Debt Crisis
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