How the German Constitutional Court could determine that the ESM doesn't violate the German Basic Law is beyond me ..... but what do I know ! But if they allow the ESM to go forward , I don't want to hear German whining afterwards..... Merkel , their Parliament and finally their Constitutional Court will have blessed this.....

http://hat4uk.wordpress.com/2012/09/09/the-esms-articles-todays-must-read/

SEPTEMBER 9, 2012 · 6:37 PM

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THE ESM’s ARTICLES: today’s must-read

You don’t get me I’m part of the Union

Draghi reinvents the Divine Right of Kings

Hitler’s 1933 Post-Reichstag Fire Emergency Decree had nothing on the newly drafted ESM Charter. You can read it here in full at the EU website: the mad folks are getting more brazen by the day, but they’re still leaving the nasties until the contemporary MSM journalists get bored: so the really startling stuff doesn’t appear until  Article 32. These are the extracts that matter, quoted verbatim except for the usual deliberately baffling legalese:

Article 32, para 3: The ESM, its property, funding and assets, wherever located and by whomsoever held, shall enjoy immunity from every form of judicial process. (There is one exception – entirely in the ESM’s favour)

para 4: The property, funding and assets of the ESM shall, wherever located and by whomsoever held, be immune from search, requisition, confiscation, expropriation or any other form of seizure, taking or foreclosure by executive, judicial, administrative or legislative action

para 8: To the extent necessary to carry out the activities provided for in this Treaty, all property, funding and assets of the ESM shall be free from restrictions, regulations, controls and moratoria of any nature

Article 35, para 1:  In the interest of the ESM, the Chairperson of the Board of Governors, Governors, alternate Governors, Directors, alternate Directors, as well as the Managing Director and other staff members shall be immune from legal proceedings with respect to acts performed by them in their official capacity and shall enjoy inviolability in respect of their official papers and documents.

There are other worms in this charity tin, but trust me, these two articles are the ones that ensure it really isn’t the standard contract. The Sun headline is this: the ESM can steal your granny’s favourite sherry decanter, and there’s nothing you can do about it; any media hacks investigating grand larceny, murder and mass rape can whistle Dixie; no matter who they subordinate, cheat, or screw over, they’re allowed to, so there; and if I Mario Draghi deems it in the public good to stuff 46,000 gold bars in a Gnome’s private bank, it’s none of your business.

But there is one astonishing phrase in there which I feel duty bound to lift and separate from even this stuff above:

‘The archives of the ESM and all documents belonging to the ESM or held by it, shall be inviolable. The premises of the ESM shall be inviolable.’

The International Law Society definition of ‘inviolable’ is ‘unassailable and impregnable’. Or in one word, untouchable. Or an yet another word, supreme.

Or in a final word, Sovereign.

You have been warned.

and.........

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/54-germans-hope-krimson-kardinals-just-say-nein-esm-greece-once-again-edge

54% Of Germans Hope Krimson Kardinals Just Say "Nein" To ESM, As Greece Is Once Again On The Edge

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 09/09/2012 18:32 -0400

• Bond
 
• European Central Bank
 
• Federal Reserve
 
• Germany
 
• Greece
 
• International Monetary Fund
 
• Monetization
 
• Newspaper
 
• None
 
• Primary Market
 
• Reality
• Recession
 
• Unemployment

There are two key events in the coming week: first, on September 12, is the decision of the German Constitutional Court, aka the Krimson Kardinals of Karlsruhe, whether the ESM, or the ECB's primary market bond monetization program, is legal. A no vote would severely cripple the European "make it up as you go along" bailout and leave Europe's peripheral nations with little recourse, and Spain with even less cash as it faces a wall of bond maturities in both October and 2013. Then, on Thursday, the Federal Reserve will most likely underwhelm the market which is expecting a new substantial round of outright Asset Purchases, aka NEW QE, which however as we explained will almost certainly not occur due to various reason first described here last Friday. A third, and perhaps far more important event, will be the Dutch parliamentary election also on September 12, but more on that in a further post. For now, looking at Germany, and the piecemeal attempt to put back together the European house of monetary cards, we find that in Germany - the country tasked with funding the European implosion - the population has decided, by a 2 to 1 margin - that the constitutional court should just say "nein" to the ESM, and let Europe go on its merry way without German backing (because as a reminder, the primary source of ESM funding is Germany). From Spiegel: "A survey shows that the majority of Germans hope that the judges in Karlsruhe reject the permanent rescue fund ESM. 54% want a reversal of the Bundestag decisions on the ESM and Fiscal Pact, which should be legally halted. Only 25% believe that the court should dismiss the urgent appeals of the Euro-skeptics."

As if we didn't already know, the majority of Germans are less than enthused about funding their insolvent neighbors:

According to the German population, there is a skeptical mood against the EU. According to the survey 53 percent are against the EU to transfer more powers. Only 27 percent are in favor. 42 percent would be an exclusion of Greece from the euro zone welcome. 30 percent would find it not good. 56 percent are worried before a breakup of the euro zone as a whole.

None of this is new and since in Europe the popular vote no longer matters on important matters such as whether or not to perpetuate failed monetary regimes, the only opinion is that of several red robe-clad men and women.

Elsewhere, and in what will likely bring Greece back to the forefront of newsflow, Bloomberg reports that "Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras failed to secure agreement from his coalition partners on 11.5 billion euros ($14.7 billion) of spending cuts required by the country’s lenders to release funds needed to keep the country in the euro."

Democratic Left leader Fotis Kouvelis, whose party is one of the three in Samaras’s coalition government, said no decision had been taken on the package and that poorer Greeks must be protected from more austerity. The three leaders agreed to meet again on Sept. 12, two days before euro area finance ministers meet to be briefed on Greek progress.

“The recession is deep and if these measures aren’t accompanied by growth measures, they will be ineffective,” Kouvelis said after the meeting with Samaras and Pasok leader Evangelos Venizelos in Athens yesterday. “Our European partners need to know that Greeks can’t take anymore. Nothing can be taken for granted.”

Samaras has said his two-year package of spending cuts contains unfair and painful decisions that are necessary to restore credibility and keep the country in the euro area. With his New Democracy party holding just 129 seats in the 300-seat chamber, he relies on Pasok’s 33 seats and Democratic Left’s 17 to secure parliamentary approval.

Agreement on the cuts, which must be approved by the so- called troika of inspectors from the euro area, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund, may allow the release of a 31 billion-euro payment that will mainly go to recapitalize the nation’s banks and boost liquidity in a cash-starved economy undergoing a fifth year of recession.

In other words, if there is no agreement on the side of Greece as the Troika goes to Athens to determine if the Greek deficit cutting plan is viable, there will be no new aid tranches, and the Greek government will likely fall a few short months after a revote barely managed to cobble a tenuous coalition. And should a new vote take place now, it will hardly please the europhiles because as the WSJ reports the anti-memorandum Syriza would surely win the elections.

According to a survey prepared by VPRC polling agency and published in Ellada Avrio newspaper, the opposition Syriza party would garner 30% of the vote, while conservatives New Democracy--who lead the coalition government--got 28% of the support.

New Democracy is the major partner in Greece's coalition government together with two center-left junior partners, the Socialist Pasok and smaller Democratic Left parties. The conservative party won Greece's mid-June elections after getting 29.6% of the ballots leading the radical-left Syriza party by three percentage points.

And while it is unknown if a pro-Europe coalition can be cobbled should there be a new round of elections, what is certain is that in Greece the economic reality is going from bad to worse, with unemployment soaring by 1% in the month of June alone, and where now that the summer holidays are over, the labor strikes have once again returned, pitching Riot police against regular police, and judges, doctors and teachers against everyone:

Judges, doctors, pharmacists and teachers are this week all expected to launch industrial action to protest government cutbacks, sparking a new round of strikes and protests that will coincide with meetings between government officials and foreign envoys.

Unionists representing judges met Friday with Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and Democratic Left leader Fotis Kouvelis separately to air their grievances after Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras refused to revoke plans to cut their salaries by up to 25 percent.

Teachers are to walk off the job on Thursday, protesting salary cuts, and hospital doctors are expected to launch go-slow or strike action next week in protest at cutbacks in their sector.

To summarize: much more deja vu, all over again.

and in case one wonders why Spain and Italy don't want to take Draghi's generous offer.....

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9532349/Troika-rejects-part-of-12bn-Greek-austerity-package.html

The so-called "troika" of inspectors from the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund returned to Athens on Friday to conclude a report on Greece's progress in meeting the terms of its latest bailout, Reuters reported.

The inspectors, who held talks with Greece's finance minister on Sunday, must approve the plan to trim roughly €12bn from the state budget over the next two years if Athens is to get a green light for the bailout money it needs to avoid bankruptcy.

"The troika has not accepted all the measures, but we have alternative proposals," said Socialist leader Evangelos Venizelos, a junior partner in the ruling coalition who was briefed by the finance minister at a party leaders' meeting.

Greek Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras played down the inspectors' objections, saying they had rejected only a "few" measures. A senior Greek government official had said earlier that the troika had sought more details on the proposals to understand them better.

Officials declined to specify what the objections related to but a source familiar with the matter said they were over measures to save roughly €2bn by cutting expenses in the public sector.

The IMF's mission chief to Greece, Poul Thomsen, told reporters as he left that the two sides had held a "good meeting".

The austerity package, which Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has yet to persuade his allies to sign off on, contains a new round of unpopular wage and pension cuts for the next two years that his coalition partners are loathe to be associated with.

The latest round of talks on Sunday between Mr Samaras and his allies, Mr Venizelos and Democratic Left chief Fotis Kouvelis, failed to get an agreement on the austerity package and the three sides said they would resume discussions on Wednesday.

The premier's allies have objected to across-the-board cuts on wages and pensions saying they want to shield poorer Greeks from further misery.

They also want a greater emphasis on measures to revive an economy languishing in its fifth year of recession. They deny that the fragile three-party coalition is at risk over the savings plan.

Thousands of Greeks demonstrated against the proposed cuts at a prominent annual trade fair on Saturday in the northern city of Thessaloniki, and more protests are expected in the coming days.

Athens argues it needs two more years to push through the austerity cuts because of a deepening recession, but the country's lenders - exasperated by broken promises of reform - have demanded the country first deliver on its pledges before seeking any concessions.

Greece faces bankruptcy and a potential euro zone exit without the next tranche of aid, an issue that European leaders are expected to decide on next month.