The financial crisis will continue to have an impact on the European Union and its Member States and will lead to changes to long-standing traditions but also to the interpretation of current law. Monetary policy and private pensions will play an important role in this regard.

CENTRAL BANKS AND FULL EMPLOYMENT

PRICE STABILITY AS PRIMARY OBJECTIVE IN THE EUROZONE

According to Article 127(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), the primary objective of the European System of Central Banks – with the European Central Bank (ECB) at its core – is to ensure price stability in the Eurozone. This principle underlies the decisions of the German Federal Constitutional Court on the proposed measures to rescue the euro and the first referral to the European Court of Justice.

However, particularly in light of the financial crisis, it is of the utmost importance to stress that price stability is certainly not the only aim of the ECB. According to Article 127(1) TFEU, the European System of Central Banks shall support the general economic policies in the EU with a view to contributing to the achievement of the objectives of the EU as laid down in Article 3 of the Treaty of the European Union (TEU), without prejudice to the objective of price stability. Article 3 of TEU provides that the EU's aim is to promote peace, its values and the well-being of its peoples. Further goals that are mentioned are freedom, security, the free movement of persons and, in this context of particular importance, the internal market, sustainable development based on balanced economic growth and price stability, a highly competitive social market economy, aiming at full employment and social progress, and a high level of protection and improvement of the quality of the environment.

The TEU further provides that the EU shall promote economic, social and territorial cohesion and solidarity between the Member States and shall establish an economic and monetary union whose currency is the euro.