Constructive Constitutional Conflict as an Accountability Device in Monetary Policy

EUs economic governance is characterised by the tension in the relationship between Member States preservation of national budgetary autonomy embedded in the no-bailout clause and the prohibition of monetary financing, on the one hand, and the need to manage a shared currency area through a common and independent central bank, on the other. Accordingly, the aim of this contribution is to present the ways in which this tension materialises itself in constitutional conflict between national constitutional courts and the Court of Justice in the monetary field. The analysis will be based on the premise that, taking into account the EUs constitutional setup, constitutional conflict is a regular occurrence: not a bug but a feature of the systems functioning. In that sense, this contribution will look at the ways in which constitutional conflict between the EU and the national level can contribute to and improve legal accountability of the ECB in the monetary field.