Commission action to monitor the ECB in the context of the public sector purchase programme mechanism/process

Question for written answer  E-000312/2021
to the Commission
Rule 138
Joachim Stanisław Brudziński (ECR)

In May 2020, Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court delivered a judgment on the European Central Bank’s public sector purchase programme. One important aspect of the debate on this issue was that the judges at the Constitutional Court also challenged the ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union that the ECB had acted in accordance with EU law.

• 1.What is the Commission’s position on the Constitutional Court’s ruling on the public sector purchase programme, and specifically the assertion that there was a failure to satisfy the proportionality principle with regard to the programming of bond purchases by the central banks?
• 2.Did the Deutsche Bundesbank, Germany’s central bank, act in accordance with the principles of proportionality and competition in the banking market?
• 3.I would point out that one of the Commission’s main tasks is to ensure compliance with the Treaties. With that in mind, has the Commission also taken steps to monitor the ECB in the context of the public sector purchase programme mechanism and quantitative easing in the purchase of bonds? If so, what further steps have been taken in this particular area?