Legal conference hosted by the European Stability Mechanism

Following the 10th anniversary of the Pringle judgment, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) hosted a legal conference devoted to 10 years of litigation involving the ESM. Our partner Carri Ginter gave a presentation at the conference where he discussed the processes that took place in Estonia in 2012.

The conclusions included the fact that the constitutional courts and applicants seem to be more active where there are large sums involved. Also, because of legal needs, those most pro the European project had to rely heavily on ESM being an international treaty and not European Union law. Ginter stated that he European Stability Mechanism is alive and serves its vital role in our economy.

Key takeaways from the presentation

• Estonians are very pro-Europe. The challenge to the emergency voting system was not an anti-Europe move, but driven by fear. What if we actually have to make a payment of 1,3BEUR with seven days’ warning? It is a significant part of our GDP.
• In the future, we should consider moving back to the Union voting model instead of giving the six largest Member States the right to launch the emergency procedure. Since it is a European project and not a banking one, it deserves to be more in line with “United in Diversity”, which serves as a motto for the European Union.
• The protection of the budgetary autonomy of the national parliaments is of central value to democracy.

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