To Bail Out Or Not to Bail Out?—Legal Aspects of the Greek Crisis

Abstract

Abstract Since the precarious state of Greece’s public finances was revealed last October, efforts to save the ‘cradle of Europe’ are in full swing. Hence a huge rescue package for Greece was agreed on in April 2010. This was followed by an even larger EU Stabilisation Fund worth €750 billion for States encountering financial problems. While the economic aspects of these rescue mechanisms have been debated intensively, their legality has escaped closer examination. Rushed through parliaments as an ‘economic emergency’, the peoples of Europe were more or less presented with a ‘fait accompli’. But are these measures really legal under EU law? What about the notorious ‘no bailout’ clause? And what about the alternatives to the rescue packages: Would it have been legal to withdraw from EMU? Or to expel a State from EMU? This chapter will shed some light on these important aspects of EU law.