Währungsrecht im Wandel

Abstract

Trends in Monetary Law

Latest Amendments of the Bundesbank Act

The Bundesbank Act saw only a few amendments during its over 35 years of existence. This changed abruptly when Monetary, Economic and Social Union was established with the former GDR on 1July 1990, when the two German states were reunited on 3ÖOctober 1990 and when the special conditions designed to take account of the ex-GDR’s situation were adapted to the proven standards of the Bundesbank Act on 1November 1992, and further change is likely as the European Economic and Monetary Union takes on shape. As the draft Bill of the Bundesrat dated 23March 1993 proves in an impressive manner (BT-Drs. 12/5169 of 17 June 1993), the need to adapt -- by way of merging the areas of jurisdiction of two or more Landeszentralbanken (cf. 88 of BBankG!*”) - especially the organizational set-up of Deutsche Bundesbank to the new constitutional conditions that have evolved after German reunification suggests the existence, at this stage already, of further recommendations regarding the land governments’ right to name candidates for the office of Landeszentralbank president. Whilst amendments of the Bundesbank Act proposed in the past had invariably left unaffected the tasks and the legal position of Deutsche Bundesbank, the desired European Economic and Monetary Union will entail a deep rupture in the constitution of the German note-issuing bank. In accordance with the three-stage process that is to lead to European Union as agreed upon under the Maastricht Treaty, the final of these three stages - which is to begin in 1999 at the latest according to the Treaty - will see Member States’ national monetary policy sovereignty surrendered to the European Central Bank System, which is to be in place by that time and which is to include a European Central Bank, and their monetary institutions from integral parts of the system. In Germany, this step is to be made possible by supplementing Article 88 of the Basic Law by adding sentence No. 2.