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| - The European Commission is preparing to launch a case against Germany to assert the primacy of EU law over rulings from its national constitutional court. A European source told AFP that the "infringement procedure" would be formally confirmed on Wednesday. Last year, Germany's Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe delayed the Berlin government's approval of a European Central Bank bond-buying programme -- despite it having been approved by European courts. Karlsruhe eventually concluded the bond-buying could go ahead, but Brussels argues that ECB actions are governed by EU not German law and is preparing a case to assert this. For the European Commission, the action against Germany is also a matter of principle. It has already criticised countries like Poland several times for refusing to implement rulings of the European Court of Justice -- and wants to make EU funding dependent on respect for the EU legal order. A draft of the decision, seen by AFP, states "the European Commission decided to initiate infringement proceedings against Germany by sending a letter of formal notice in this case." The infringement procedure consists of several stages and may lead to a referral to the European Court of Justice. The notice recalls that on May 5, 2020, the German court had ruled that the ECB's Public Sector Purchase Programme (PSPP) breaches German law and ordered it stopped. For Brussels, this judgement "raises grave concerns" over Germany's respect for "the general principles of autonomy, primacy, effectiveness and uniform application of Union law." The judgment is "a dangerous precedent for Union law, both for the practice of the German Constitutional court itself, and for the supreme and constitutional courts and tribunals of other member states." Many in Germany oppose actions by the central bank to buy bonds, arguing that increasing the money supply to help the broader EU economy will hit German savers with inflation and lower interest rates. Attempts to use the German courts to halt this have so far proved unsuccessful, but Brussels is keen to close off this avenue of attack by confirming the European Court of Justice as final arbiter. Separately, Brussels has been mulling action against other EU states in apparent breach of the law, such as Poland, which last month simply refused an ECJ order to close a coal mine. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki had hailed the contested German decision, and Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban has also sought to push the envelope of EU law. For former EU member Britain, leaving the jurisdiction of the ECJ was a key goal of its decision to leave the bloc. Germany's government under Chancellor Angela Merkel has never politically challenged the primacy of EU law, but the Karlsruhe court has often proved a stumbling bloc for Brussels' plans. dc/arp/dl
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