Michael Waibel is a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Cambridge. On 7 September 2011, the German Federal Constitutional Court gave judgment in three joined cases regarding the constitutionality of German financial assistance to Greece and of its guarantees to the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF). The Eurozone rescue efforts are widely seen to stand (or fall) with the government in Berlin. Germany is the largest contributor to the Greek rescue and the EFSF with more than 27 percent, or 119 billion €, of the 440 billion € in guarantees and one of only six AAA-rated sovereigns remaining in the Eurozone (alongside Austria, France, Finland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands). Financial markets breathed a collective sigh of relief once the court upheld the rescue measures, even though few had expected the Court to strike down the laws authorizing the German guarantees. They had waited for word from Germany's highest court with a mix of anxiety and hope. The decision removed an important source of uncertainty…
Financial Crisis
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Greek Rescue – Act II
Michael Waibel is a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Cambridge. After losing a disastrous war to the Ottoman Empire in 1898, Greece was unable to service its existing debt or to pay an indemnity. The major European powers, alongside private bondholders pushed for the establishment of an international commission of financial…
Dispatch from the Euro Titanic: And the Orchestra Played On [EJIL Editorial]
These are challenging times for the European Union. Internally, important, even fundamental, decisions are on the agenda as the Union struggles with the Euro crisis and its underlying economic fissures. (Mercifully, the scapegoating of the USA as an escape from facing Europe’s very own breathtaking governmental and private-sector financial and fiscal irresponsibility has all but disappeared – mercifully,…
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