Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-ws8qp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T10:10:12.465Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Constitutional and Administrative Pluralism in the EU System of Banking Supervision

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2019

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

This Article examines the relationship between the developing European Union (EU) system of banking supervision and the theories of constitutional pluralism. It questions the remaining epistemic, explanatory, and normative value of these theories with regard to the EU system of banking supervision. The argument is broken down into three parts. First, the Article briefly describes the system of banking supervision in the European Union and the pluralist challenges that it spurs. Second, it schematically maps out the leading theories of constitutional pluralism to test, by way of their application to the field of EU banking supervision, their epistemic, explanatory, and normative value. Finally, to the extent that this value has diminished, the Article offers another pluralist theory, not a constitutional one, which could supplement the identified epistemic, explanatory, and normative gaps. This is a theory of administrative pluralism.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 2016 by German Law Journal, Inc. 

References

1 Piotr Buras, The EU's Silent Revolution, in European Council on Foreign Relations 2 (2013), http://www.ecfr.eu/page/-/ECFR87_EU_SILENT_REVOLUTION_AW.pdf (last visited Sept. 16, 2016).Google Scholar

2 For a detailed report, see the IMF, A Banking Union for the Euro Area, IMF Staff Discussion Note (Feb. 2013), https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/sdn/2013/sdn1301.pdf [hereinafter IMF].Google Scholar

3 Eilis Ferran, European Banking Union: Imperfect, But It Can Work, in European Corporate Governance Institute (2014); Bernhard Speyer, EU Monitor, EU Banking Union: Right Idea, Poor Execution (Barbara Böttcher ed., 2013).Google Scholar

4 European Banking Authority, http://www.eba.europa.eu/ (last visited Sept. 16, 2016).Google Scholar

5 European Securities and Markets Authority, https://www.esma.europa.eu/ (last visited Sept. 16, 2016).Google Scholar

6 European Insurance and Occupational Pension Authority, https://eiopa.europa.eu/ (last visited Sept. 16, 2016).Google Scholar

7 European Systematic Risk Board, https://www.esrb.europa.eu/home/html/index.en.html (last visited Sept. 16, 2016).Google Scholar

8 IMF, supra note 2, at 9.Google Scholar

9 For a more detailed discussion, see Howarth, David & Quaglia, Lucia, Banking Union as Holy Grail: Rebuilding the Single Market in Financial Services, Stabilizing Europe's Banks and ‘Completing’ Economic and Monetary Union, 51 J. Common Mkt. Stud. 103, (2013).Google Scholar

10 Guide to Banking Supervision, European Central Bank 69 (2014), https://www.bankingsupervision.europa.eu/ecb/pub/pdf/ssmguidebankingsupervision201411.en.pdf.Google Scholar

12 See also Niamh Moloney, European Banking Union: Assessing its Risks and Resilience, 51 J. Common Mkt. L. Rev. 1609, 1618 (2014) who also observed that “the allocation of supervisory power under the SSM is specific and enumerated.” Google Scholar

13 European Central Bank, supra note 10, at 7.Google Scholar

15 Id. at 7–8.Google Scholar

16 Id. at 10. A bank is considered significant if it meets any of the following conditions: (a) The total value of its assets exceeds €30 billion or—unless the total value of its assets is below €5 billion—exceeds 20% of national GDP; (b) it is one of the three most significant credit institutions established in a Member State; (c) it is a recipient of direct assistance from ESM; and (d) the total values of its assets exceeds €5 billion and the ratio of its cross-border assets and/or liabilities in more than one other participating Member State to its total assets and/or liabilities is above 20%. Notwithstanding the fulfillment of these criteria, the SSM may declare a bank significant to ensure the consistent application of high-quality supervisory standards.Google Scholar

17 See Council Regulation (EC) No. 1024/2013 of 15 Oct. 2013, art. 6, 2013 O.J. (L 287) 63–89 9 [hereinafter Council Regulation No. 1024/2013].Google Scholar

18 Id. at art. 6(2).Google Scholar

19 Id. at art. 6(1).Google Scholar

20 Id. at art. 6(3).Google Scholar

21 Moloney, supra note 12.Google Scholar

23 European Commission Memo, EU Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive (BRRD): Frequently Asked Questions (Apr. 15, 2014), http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-14-297_en.htm.Google Scholar

26 Dirk Schoenmaker, On the Need for a Fiscal Backstop for the Banking System 4 (DSF Policy Paper Series, Paper No. 44, 2014), http://www.dsf.nl/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/DSF-Policy-Paper-No-44-On-the-need-for-a-fiscal-backstop-to-the-banking-system.pdf.Google Scholar

27 The SRM Regulation provides that the prescribed contributions of national banks to the SRF are levied by the respective Member States and transferred by them to the SRF, following the special Agreement on the Transfer and Mutualization of Contributions to the Single Resolution Fund. Agreement on the Transfer and Mutualisation for Contributions to the Single Resolution Fund, Council of Europe, http://register.consilium.europa.eu/doc/srv?l=EN&f=ST%208457%202014%20INIT (last visited Sept. 16, 2016).Google Scholar

28 The build-up of SRM started in January 2016.Google Scholar

29 Moloney, supra note 12, at 1640.Google Scholar

31 See the fears expressed in the British Parliament “that the Single Supervisory Mechanism proposals may seriously undermine the authority of the EBA in its relations with the ECB.” The Impact Of Banking Union On The EBA And The ESRB, U.K. Parliament, http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201213/ldselect/ldeucom/88/8806.htm (last visited Sept. 16, 2016).Google Scholar

32 See generally, Fahey, Elaine, Does the Emperor Have Financial Crisis Clothes? On the Legal Basis of the European Banking Authority, 74 Mod. L. Rev. 581. (2011).Google Scholar

33 Case 9/56, Meroni & Co., Industrie Metallurgiche, SpA v. High Auth. of the European Coal and Steel Cmty., 1958 E.C.R. 133.Google Scholar

34 Howarth & Quaglia, supra note 9, at 25.Google Scholar

35 See Statement by the Council on the Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council Amending Regulation (EU) No 1093/2010 Establishing a European Supervisory Authority (European Banking Authority) as regards the Conferral of Specific Tasks on the European Central Bank Pursuant to Council Regulation (EU) No 1024/2013, Council of Europe (last visited Sept. 16, 2016), http://register.consilium.europa.eu/doc/srv?l=EN&f=ST%2013766%202013%20REV%201%20ADD%201. For details, see Regulation 1022/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 October 2013 Amending Regulation (EU) No 1093/2010 Establishing a European Supervisory Authority—European Banking Authority—regarding the Conferral of Specific Tasks on the European Central Bank pursuant to Council Regulation (EU) 1024/2013, 2013 O.J. (L 287) 20–22 (EU).Google Scholar

36 See Council Regulation No. 1024/2013, supra note 17, at para. 32.Google Scholar

38 Moloney, supra note 12, at 1665.Google Scholar

39 What follows draws closely on Constitutional Pluralism in the European Union and Beyond 2–9 (Matej Avbelj & Jan Komärek eds., 2012).Google Scholar

40 Neil MacCormick, The Maastricht Urteil: Sovereignty Now, 1 Eur. L.J. 259, 265 (1995).Google Scholar

41 Id. at 265.Google Scholar

42 Neil MacCormick, Questioning Sovereignty: law, State and Nation in the European Commonwealth 104 (1999).Google Scholar

43 Neil MacCormick, A Comment on the Governance Paper (Jean Monnet Ctr., Working paper No. 6/01, 2001), http://www.jeanmonnetprogram.org/archive/papers/01/012501.html Google Scholar

44 Neil Walker, The Idea of Constitutional Pluralism, 65 Mod. L. Rev. 317, 333 (2002) [hereinafter Walker, Constitutional Pluralism].Google Scholar

45 Most recently, see generally Walker, Neil, Intimations of Global Law (2014).Google Scholar

46 See Avbelj & Komárek, supra note 39, at 4.Google Scholar

47 The ensuing paragraphs draw directly on Matej Avbelj, Questioning EU Constitutionalisms, 9 German L.J. 1, 1122 (2008).Google Scholar

48 J. H. H. Weiler, In Defence of the Status Quo: Europe's Constitutional Sonderweg, in European Constitutionalism Beyond the State 23 (J. H. H. Weiler & Marlene Wind eds., 2003).Google Scholar

49 Neil Walker, Flexibility Within a Meta-Constitutional Frame: Reflections on the Future of Legal Authority in Europe, in Constitutional Change in the EU: From Uniformity to Flexibility? 14 (Gráinne de Búrca & Joanne Scott eds., 2000).Google Scholar

50 Walker, Constitutional Pluralism, supra note 44, at 338.Google Scholar

51 Neil Walker, Europe's Constitutional Engagement, 18 Ratio Juris 387, 398 (2005).Google Scholar

52 Mattias Kumm, The Cosmopolitan Turn in Constitutionalism: On the Relationship Between Constitutionalism in and Beyond the State, in Ruling the World: Constitutionalism, International law and Global Governance 258 (Dunoff, Jeffrey L. & Trachtman, Joel P. eds., 2009).Google Scholar

53 Mattias Kumm, The Jurisprudence of Constitutional Conflict: Constitutional Supremacy in Europe Before and After the Constitutional Treaty, 11 Eur. L.J. 262, 292 (2005).Google Scholar

54 Miguel Poiares Maduro, Contrapunctual Law: Europe's Constitutional Pluralism in Action, in Sovereignty in Transition: Essays in European Law 502 (Neil Walker ed., 2003).Google Scholar

55 Id. at 525.Google Scholar

56 Ingolf Pernice, Multilevel Constitutionalism in the European Union, 27 Eur. L. Rev. 511, 514 (2002).Google Scholar

57 Id. at 518–19.Google Scholar

58 Oliver Gerstenberg & Sabel, Charles F., Directly-Deliberative Polyarchy: An Institutional Ideal for Europe?, in Good Governance in Europe's Integrated Market 289, 292 (Christian Joerges & Renaud Dehousse eds., 2002).Google Scholar

59 See generally, Marks, Gary, Liesbet Hooghe & Kermit Blank, European Integration from the 1980s: State-Centric v. Multi-Level Governance, 34 J. Common Mkt. Stud. 341, (1996); Gary Marks, Scharpf, Fritz W., Schmitter, Philippe C. & Wolfgang Streeck, Governance in the European Union (1996).Google Scholar

60 See generally, e.g., Martinico, Giuseppe & Pollicino, Oreste, The Interaction between Europe's Legal Systems: Judicial Dialogue and the Creation of Supranational Laws (2012).Google Scholar

61 See, e.g., Avbelj, Matej, Differentiated Integration—Farewell to the EU-27?, 14 German L.J. 191, 191212 (2013).Google Scholar

62 Daniel Halberstam, Systems Pluralism and Institutional Pluralism in Constitutional Law: National, Supranational and Global Governance, in Constitutional Pluralism in the European Union and Beyond 85, (Matej Avbeli & Jan Komárek eds., 2012).Google Scholar

63 See Bundesverfassungsgericht [BVerfGE] [Federal Constitutional Court], 2 BvR 13/13, Jan. 14, 2014, paras. 1–24, http://www.bverfg.de/e/rs20140114_2bvr272813.html [hereinafter Judgment of Jan. 14, 2014].Google Scholar

64 Halberstam, supra note 62.Google Scholar

65 Id. at 109.Google Scholar

66 Id. at 110.Google Scholar

67 Benedict Kingsbury, Nico Krisch & Stewart, Richard B., The Emergence of Global Administrative Law, 15 Law & Contemp. Probs. 68, 1561 (2005).Google Scholar

68 See, e.g., Peters, Anne, The Merits of Global Constitutionalism, 16 Ind. J. Global Legal Stud. 397, (2009).Google Scholar

69 Kingsbury, supra note 67.Google Scholar

70 Nico Krisch, The Pluralism of Global Administrative Law, 17 Eur. J. Int'l L. 278, (2006).Google Scholar

71 Id. at 278.Google Scholar

72 See generally, Pluralism in European Administrative Law: Proceedings of the Second REALaw Research Forum (Kars J. de Graaf, J. H. Jans, Alexandra Prechal & R. J. G. M. Widdershoven eds., 2012).Google Scholar

73 Luca de Lucia, Administrative Pluralism, Horizontal Co-Operation and Transnational Administrative Acts, 5 Rev. Eur. Admin. L. 17, 1745 (2012).Google Scholar

74 See generally Hartmann, Moritz, Administrative Constitutionalism and the Political Union, 14 German L.J. 695 (2013).Google Scholar

75 Id. at 704.Google Scholar

76 Id. at 705.Google Scholar

77 Id. at 706.Google Scholar

78 Id. at 709.Google Scholar

80 Id. at 708.Google Scholar

82 Id.; Krisch, supra note 70.Google Scholar

83 Judgment of Jan. 13, 2014, supra note 63.Google Scholar

84 Hartmann, supra note 74, 706.Google Scholar

85 On the need to distinguish between pluralism and plurality, see generally Walker, Neil, Four Visions of Constitutional Pluralism, 2 Eur. J. Legal Stud. 336 (2008).Google Scholar

86 For a more in-depth discussion, see Avbelj, Matej, Can European Integration be Constitutional and Pluralist–Both at the Same Time?, in Avbelj & Komárek, supra note 39.Google Scholar

87 See, e.g., Dawson, Mark, Henrik Enderlein & Christian Joerges, Beyond the Crisis: The Governance of Europe's Economic, Political, and Legal Transformation 151 (2015), in observing many potential strains in the relationship between the ECB and the EBA, as well as between the participating and non-participating Member States, but simultaneously noting “a series of governance safeguards to both protect the cooperative nature of EBA-ECB relations and to address the concerns of … all Member States.” Id. Google Scholar

88 Council Regulation 1024/2013, art. 3, 2013 O.J. (L 287) (EC).Google Scholar