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ISSN: 2036-5438 Austerity on the loose in Portugal: European judicial restraint in times of crisis by Francisco Pereira Coutinho Perspectives on Federalism, Vol. 8, issue 3, 2016 Except where otherwise noted content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons 2.5 Italy License E -105

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Austerity on the loose in Portugal: European judicial restraint in times of crisis

Articles and Commentary

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Authors: Francisco Pereira Coutinho

Country

Portugal

Rights Involved

Right to social security

Issue

Resource expenditure
Resource generation
Transparency

Year: 2016

Summary: Discusses the MAR obligation as it relates to austerity measures adopted by Portugal. The international bailout granted to Portugal between 2011 and 2014 was conditional on the adoption by the Portuguese State of austerity measures included in a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed by the European Commission on behalf of the European Union (EU) and the Member States. Its implementation caused a significant decrease in the level of protection of social rights. The compatibility of the MoU with core principles of the rule of law and with the EU ́s social Constitution was never tested in court. A systemic failure in the jurisdictional system of the EU immunized the MoU to any judicial challenge. At the apex of the system, the Court of Justice of the EU declined to answer preliminary references submitted by Portuguese lower courts that questioned the compatibility with the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU of national budgetary measures that implemented the MoU. At the bottom, Portuguese courts either failed to properly identify the EU law acts that were the source of national austerity measures or is regarded their role as common EU law courts of ordinary jurisdiction when they bypassed the opportunity to refer a question for a preliminary ruling of the Court of Justice challenging the validity of the MoU.

Primary Documents

Portugal case.pdf
english
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