ROME (Reuters) – The independence of the European Central Bank is key to the foundations of the European Union and no constitutional court should decide what it can or cannot do, Italy’s Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Germany’s highest court gave the bank three months to justify bond purchases under its flagship stimulus programme or lose the Bundesbank as a participant.
“It is not up to any constitutional court to decide what the ECB can or cannot do. Its independence is the fulcrum of the European treaties, which are recognised by Germany too,” Conte told the newspaper, Il Fatto Quotidiano, in an interview.
“I find it out of place for a national court, although a constitutional one, to ask the ECB to justify its purchases. It cannot interfere in these initiatives,” he added.
(Reporting by Francesca Piscioneri; Writing by Giulia Segreti; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
