We should be wary of removing the ECB from the troika to facilitate the use of outright monetary transactions

A key legal debate in the context of the Eurozone crisis is whether so called ‘Outright Monetary Transactions’(OMT), which would allow the European Central Bank (ECB) to buy unlimited numbers of government bonds in secondary markets, are compatible with European law. The latest development in this debate came last week when one of the Advocates General of the European Court of Justice (ECJ), Pedro Cruz Villalón, stated that in principle OMT would be legal under the correct conditions, which include removing the ECB from the ‘troika’ which oversees financial support to Eurozone countries. Miguel Otero Iglesias writes that while the ECJ is not expected to give a full ruling until the autumn, political leaders should be cautious about removing the ECB from the troika without creating a new institution capable of filling its role.