European Central Bank Monetary Policy. The View of the Sovereign Debt Crisis

Studienarbeit aus dem Jahr 2020 im Fachbereich BWL - Bank, Börse, Versicherung, Note: 1,0, FOM Essen, Hochschule für Oekonomie & Management gemeinnützige GmbH, Hochschulleitung Essen früher Fachhochschule, Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: This paper is about the European Central Bank Monetary Policy and the View of the Sovereign Debt Crisis. 'Whatever it takes'- three simple but effective words had the desired effect and calmed the government bond markets in the summer of 2012, whose developments in the wake of the European sovereign debt crisis had led to immense financing difficulties for some member states of the euro area. Even more, the statement by Mario Draghi, then president of the European Central Bank (ECB), underlined the determination with which the ECB is willing to prevent a possible break up of the euro area. The measures taken by the ECB have included interest rate cuts, negative interest rates and purchase programmes of various assets. However, the ECB's measures did not meet with the exclusive approval of experts, they sometimes caused harsh public criticism and even the judiciary, in form of the Bundesverfassungsgericht (German Federal Constitutional Court) and the European Court of Justice (ECJ), had to address the issue. Against this background, this assignment aims to examine whether the monetary policy of the ECB infringes Article 123 (1) Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) which states the prohibition on monetary financing of member state budgets. To begin with, the origins of the European sovereign debt crisis are explained. The paper then outlines selected non-standard monetary policy measures taken by the ECB to mitigate the effects of the crisis, in form of Outright Money Transactions (OMTs) and the Public Sector Purchase Programme (PSPP). The fourth chapter focuses on the PSPP and analyses the programme against the background of Article 123(1) TFEU.