Mechanisms of financial stabilisation

One of the measures that the Eurozone Member States took in their attempt to combat the financial and debt crisis was to give financial assistance to the crises-ridden states. The purpose of such assistance was to safeguard the financial stability of the euro area as a whole. Thus, these mechanisms can be referred to as financial stabilisation mechanisms. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the different mechanism of financial stabilisation and their constitutional significance. Due to the fact that there are actually several mechanisms, the discussion will focus mainly on the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), the permanent mechanism. Out of the various constitutional questions that such mechanisms give rise to, this paper will emphasise those issues that relate to the asymmetrical structure of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). The choice to focus on issues that relate to the asymmetry of the EMU stems from the fact that these questions are politically most contentious, which also meant that addressing them proved legally difficult.