The European Green Deal and the European Climate Law highlight the EU’s commitment to strive for carbon neutrality. Considering the magnitude of the global challenge, it is evident that a green transition will not succeed without the efforts of every sector, including financial institutions. Concerns have been raised that central banks may, in fact, contribute to the increase of greenhouse gas emissions and, in consequence, aggravate global warming. This all has currently resulted in a rapid expansion of the debate on the potential role of central banks, and in particular the ECB, to consider climate objectives. In the European context, however, it is often argued that environmental sustainability lies outside the ECB’s traditional core mandate to focus on price stability. This article aims to introduce the environmental integration principle, laid down in Article 11 TFEU, in the ECB’s legal framework, and provide an analysis of the possibilities for and limitations to the greening of the ECB's monetary policy based on this provision. Although Article 11 TFEU has great potential with regards to the greening of sectoral policies, in legal literature, the provision has not gained enough academic attention in terms of the financial sector.

Cybersecurity in the financial sector is a dynamic and evolving policy field with unique challenges and specific characteristics. While it has recently received a lot of attention from disciplines like Economics and Politics, legal literature on this topic, especially with regard to EU law, still lags behind. This is surprising, given that cybersecurity in the EU is characterized by complex governance structures, a variety of legal sources, and a wide range of different rule makers and involved actors, and given that only a clear legal framework with efficient institutions at both EU and Member State level can provide for a safe digital environment. The purpose of this Article, therefore, is twofold: On the one hand, it aims to introduce the legal aspects of cybersecurity in the financial sector while taking stock of existing cybersecurity schemes, including their strengths and weaknesses from a legal perspective. On the other hand, it will set out key elements that cybersecurity regulation in the financial sector must respect in order to be effective and come up with reform proposals to make the EU financial sector more cybersecure.

Values define an important link between law and culture. Giving consideration to the title of the German Law Journal's Tenth Anniversary Symposium, “The Transnationalization of Legal Cultures,” I will address how European law has affected the transnationalization of values.

As a consequence of the British veto a reform of the EU Treaty, with the aim to strengthen the stability of the eurozone by transferring new competences in the field of fiscal and economic policies, became impossible. Therefore an international Treaty, the so called Fiscal Compact, was concluded among 25 Member States of the EU. The contribution deals with the complex relationship between both Treaties, especially with the institutional arrangement. It argues that the Fiscal Compact is in comparison to the adopted secondary legislation, the so called Six Pack, of a rather symbolic nature. The more important is the legal link between Fiscal Compact and the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), which makes stability a precondition for European solidarity. European control of stability might interfere with the budget sovereignty of national parliaments but as stability is, since the Treaty of Maastricht, a legally binding principle of the European Monetary Union, its more efficient control is in line with former transfer of competence. Not least budget sovereignty is lost if an over-indebted Member State’s choice is just between sovereign default and financial aid by the ESM. A fully fledged European control of the national budget is therefore in the last resort legitimate.