An overview of litigation in the context of financial assistance to Eurozone Member States

Crisis-driven austerity measures adopted by some Eurozone Member States to satisfy the conditions for receiving financial assistance have raised concerns over the level of protection of fundamental rights afforded to individuals, and have thrown into sharp relief the problems surrounding the efficiency and the lack of transparency of crisis management mechanisms at the national and EU level. This contribution provides an overview of some of the most prominent litigation arising in the context of financial assistance given to, Greece, and Cyprus. Growing literature has examined the macroeconomic programmes of these countries from a constitutional (viz. the legal competence of the EU bailouts/bail-ins) and a social policy perspective (viz. the impact of the programmes on labour and employment social rights). Taking stock of these accounts, this article seeks to provide an updated picture of the most relevant case law, focusing on the position of the individual as a litigant. The article does not purport to provide an all-encompassing or comparative analysis of the litigation concerning the Eurozone bailouts. Such a challenging task would require extensive analysis not only of cases brought before numerous national courts, but also of the specifics of the national judicial systems of the three Eurozone Member States. Instead,this contribution aims to bring together the main attempts that have taken place so far to challenge measures adopted by the three Eurozone Member States in order to fulfill the conditions for receiving financial assistance. To this effect, the article first explains the concept of conditionality in the context of financial assistance (i). It then outlines some of the most pertinent cases at the national level (ii) and discusses the litigation before the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU), focusing on recent developments in the case law concerning financial assistance by the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) (iii). It concludes with an outlook on future developments in this saga of litigation. As a concise account of relevant case law, the article could be of interest to anyone who wishes to follow the development of the judicial responses to the Eurozone bailouts.