France on Wednesday welcome the decision by the German Constitutional Court to approve the ratification of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), calling for continued efforts to work on stabilizing and trengthening the euro area.
The German court's decision showed that it "recognized in
principle the compatibility of the European Stability Mechanism
(ESM) with the German constitution," said Bernard Cazeneuve, French
Minister Delegate for European Affairs, stressing that it was "a
very important and long-awaited decision," and it "paves the way for
this tool to come into force swiftly."
"I welcome this decision, which allows us to move forward along
the path of the Euro Area's mutually-supportive integration, as
President (Francois) Hollande requested," the minister stated.
Earlier Wednesday, the Germany Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe
rejected demand from about 38,000 plaintiffs to issue a temporary
injunction to prevent President Joachim Gauck from signing the
treaty establishing the ESM into law.
The ESM is designed to provide financial assistance to its member
countries in the euro area that are experiencing or being threatened
by severe financing problems.
It was scheduled to come into force in July 2012, but was
suspended due to plaintiffs' complaint in Germany, who argued that
the ESM strips the parliament of the power to decide how taxpayers'
money should be used, thus infringing German constitution.
The court's final decision cleared the way for Germany to ratify
the long-awaited 500-billion-euro (644-billion-U.S. dollar)
permanent bailout fund for the 17 euro-currency countries, and made
it possible to replace in July 2013 the European Financial
Stability Fund (EFSF), a temporary rescue fund set up in May 2010
and expires on the end of June, 2013.
