schema:articleBody
| - The German Constitutional Court on Wednesday threw out a legal challenge that had stopped Europe's biggest economy from ratifying a 750-billion-euro ($885 billion) EU coronavirus recovery fund. The decision essentially clears the path for Germany to sign off on the fund. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier had been due to sign off on the fund to complete Germany's formal ratification process after both the upper and lower house of parliament approved it late March. But five individuals had filed a challenge, prompting the court to stop Steinmeier putting pen to the deal, pending its examination of the complaint. The court rejected the emergency bid to halt the ratification process, saying in a statement that "a summary examination did not find a high probability of a violation of ... the Basic Law". The court said that it would keep examining the main arguments in the challenge. However, given the very low probability of the case being successful, the potential harm done in holding up ratification would be far more significant than to allow it to go ahead, it said. Along with French President Emmanuel Macron, Chancellor Angela Merkel had sketched out the fund last year, which eventually was agreed by the EU's 27 members in December as part of a 1.8-trillion-euro budget up to 2027. The move to offer loans and outright grants to EU countries hit hardest by the pandemic, such as Italy, smashed long-held stereotypes of Germany as a "frugal" country staunchly opposed to taking responsibility for others' debt. But faced with a pandemic which spared no one, Europe's biggest economy crossed several red lines to pull itself out of a crippling recession. It also suspended a constitutional rule that blocks the government from incurring new debt for 2020 and 2021. hmn/mfp/lth
|