The “Fiscal Compact”: legal uncertainty and political ambiguity

The so-called “Fiscal Compact Treaty” attempts to deal with the structural weaknesses of the Economic and Monetary Union. While member states are free to conclude an intergovernmental treaty, such a treaty may not be in conflict with existing rules in the legal framework of the European Union. This concerns the European Union treaties as well as legislation like the “Six-Pack” on economic governance.
Besides this uncertainty that comes along with the choice of the instrument of an intergovernmental treaty, there are two major uncertainties regarding the control of national policies: Automatic sanctions in the excessive deficit procedure were rejected, but the reversed qualified majority does not appear as a legally sound solution – and, since the original Maastricht provisions are not affected, the Court of Justice can only control the transposition of the golden rule.