Acceso usuarios
Almost three and a half years since its famous Gauweiler ruling, the Court was called upon in Weiss to rule on another important preliminary reference made by the German constitutional court, concerning this time the validity of the quantitative easing programme of the European Central Bank. Weiss makes it apparent that the two courts continue to have conflicting views about the role and the extent of the mandate of the ECB, the measure and the nature of the judicial review that should be exercised upon it and the delineation between monetary and economic policy under the Treaties. At the same time, it is equally clear that the German Constitutional Court continues its attempt to prepossess the outcome of its preliminary rulings and to guide the Court towards its own interpretation of the law. However, the much more conciliatory language of the preliminary reference compared to Gauweiler and the absence of an explicit ultra vires threat in case the ruling is not given in the manner suggested by the constitutional court leaves room for optimism that the direct judicial dialogue established between these two courts will progressively lead to the normalisation of their institutional relations.
