Radio Utopie

Sarah Luzia Hassel-Reusing 30.05.2010 (englisch) (file number of the national Parliament 17/1685)

At the 29.05.2010, the human rights activist Sarah Luzia Hassel-Reusing has filed a constitutional complaint against the law, which calls itself „Gesetz zur Übernahme von Gewährleistungen im Rahmen eines europäischen Stabilisierungsmechanismus“ (law on state guarantees within the framework of a European stability mechanism, file number of the national Parliament 17/1685).

The law supports the speculation, instead of slowing it down, because it promises the creditors of the other euro member states, that they will, at the cost of the tax payers, get back more of their credit claims, than they would get otherwise in the case of a national bankruptcy. This fund supports massively the power of the creditors in comparison with the inhabitants of the of the debitor coun-try. It is just not an act of solidarity with the population of the other states, which have just got into solvency difficulties because of over-sized bank preservation funds, but with their creditors, again a huge subventionism with tax payer money for the banks, at the cost of the the social, of the real economy, and even of the ability to work of the states.

The law, in addition to that, contains it its §1 Abs. 1 S. 2 a carte blanche – agreement for the creation of a system, which would be by far more dangerous and painful for the people in the euro zone and in the EU, than a national bankruptcy alone could ever be:
It is planned, to transport credit conditions of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to the victim countries with the rank of the EU secondary law.

In this month, the President of Ecuador has publicly announced, that he will write a letter to the Prime Minister of Greece, to explain, how the programs of the IMF have aggravated the crises and have destroyed the economical existence of many people.

Many states especially at Latin America are trying today to escape from the IMF credits, because there is world-wide no other legal creditor with such brutal credit terms.

Now this law wants to give its carte blanche – agreement to install a mechanism at the EU secondary law level, in which the EU Commission and the IMF together are determinating the conditions for the emergency credits, and this expressively with a rigidity, as it is usual nowhere else than with IMF conditions.
Even the treaties, which the existence of the IMF is based on, do not have any higher rank than most other international treaties. Clearly below all national constitutions, below the UN Charter, below the human rights of the UN, and below the international humanitarian law.

Since the EU wants, with the Lisbon Treaty, to put its law completely above the human rights of the UN, the concept of transporting IMF credit conditions with the rank of EU secondary law is an obvious attack against the ability of the universal human rights of the UN to limit the implementation of the IMF credit conditions for the euro zone respectively for the EU member countries.

Ireland is affected even harder, because art. 29 Abs. 4 Nr. 10 of the Irish constitution puts all EU law above the Irish constitution itself, so that Ireland has nearly no protective mechanisms at all against IMF conditions with EU secondary rank – except for possibly leaving the EU.

The IMF may be an independent international organization and as such have the right to draft its conditions independently of the human rights. But that these conditions are implemented even as far as they trample over the limit, which the the national constitutions and the indivisible human rights of the UN are setting, is illegal. According to the view of the plaintiff, it won‘t take long any more, until in many countries consequences, in terms of liabiliy and of criminal law, will be put through to punish the disregard of the preeminence of the basic rights and of the universal human rights (belonging to the „ius cogens“) above the IMF law.

At Niger, the IMF has prohibited the building of sufficient food reserves, and even amidst the huge starvation catastrophy, the IMF has lobbied against the distribution of millet food aid of the United Nations and of NGOs.

At Brazil, the IMF has not accepted a provisional debt moratorium, so that the Brazilian „fome zero“ program could only get hundred thousands instead of millions out of starvation.

In the 1980ies, cuts into food subventions, ordered by the IMF, have caused hunger riots at Bolivia, Jordan, and Venezuela.

According to a publication of the United Nations on the human right to food (art. 11 UN Social Pact), the credit conditions of IMF and World Bank together are the second-biggest cause world-wide for the hunger, by far more than biotechnology, and also by far more than all wars world-wide together.
In 2005, more than 100.000,- people per day have died of starvation, obviously a significant part of them because of the IMF. These numbers remind of homicides, but with the difference, that it is directed against the poorest and not against specific nations.

As a result of the Latvian Constitutional Court of the 22.12.2009, the IMF has become, at least for the moment, a bit more modest at Europe, in the way, that the IMF now is in favour of respectively does not violate the minimum wages and the minimum pensions.

The recent IMF conditions in the „memorandum of understanding“ towards Greece and in to „letter of intent“ of Romania, however, show which way the IMF wants:

-significant cuts into the pensions
-significant into the public health insurance
-making the the ababondonment of standard wages easier
-lifting the honorary system of the freelancers
-cuts into the subventions of the real economy (in order to have more money for the banks)
-significant cuts into the wages of the public administration
-drastic reduction of the personnel of the public administration (for Greece replacement of only 1 of 5 retiring officers, for Romania only 1 of 7; even though at Romania the police is scarce already today)

The „memorandum of understanding“ with Greece proves, that the IMF has demanded of Greece already at January, that 10,- billion € of the first support package, which the German Parliament has consented to at the 07.05.2010 (file number 17/1544), have to be spent not for the Greeks of for their debts, but as a start capital for another Greek bank preservation fund. Last week, the self-declared „system relevant“ banking circles have, in harmony with the EU Commission, demanded that all euro member states together pay additional 350,- billions of € into a preventive banking preservation fund, as e. g. Radio Utopie and taz have reported.
The IMF has made exactly this as a condition to Greece already at January. And now the whole connection is getting visible. The new „stabilization mechanism“ would, with a probability close to certainty, also be used to fill up such preventive bank preservation funds, financed by the states, which have to take loans to finance their contribution.

The drastic disconstruction of the personnel of the public administration is on the same line as the Lisbon Treaty (art. 14 TFEU, protocol 26 to the Lisbon Treaty), with the goal to force the states, to have significant parts of their sovereign tasks done by private corporations, up to the de-facto dissolution of the sovereignty of the states, to the degradation of democracy to a facace, to the degradation of law and order to a basis for negotiations.

In addition to that, the IMF is also highly controversial with regard to work the with statistics. Its former employee Davison Budhoo has accused the IMF, that the IMF has intentiously incorrectly analysed data on Trinidad and Tobago, in order to just give the false impression to the country, that it had a crisis, in order to put through the conditions expected by the IMF.

Especially spicy is, that Trinidad and Tobago is, according to a Canadian study, one of the countries, in which the IMF has put through the privatization of parts of the sovereign administration and of the weakening of the civil monopoly on the use of force.

The so-called „Gesetz zur Übernahme von Gewährleistungen im Rahmen eines europäischen Stabilisierungsmechanismus“ is the carte blanche – agreement to a „terrible beauty“, which must not be born – in order to preserve for the current and for future generations at Germany and at Europe a life in dignity and an international order, which respects and promotes, to the best of its ability, the sovereignty of the states (art. 2 par. 1 UN Charter) and the chance to fully realize and enjoy the full realization of the universal human rights (art. 28 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights).

Politicians, who give everything away to self-declared „system relevant“ banks, instead of deconcentrating them, until they are small enough, so that they cannot any more endanger the system of the economy and of the state, politicians, who listen to the mightiest banks and corporations, instead of to the constitutional order and to the universal human rights, do not belong into the Parliament.

V.i.S.d.P:

Sarah Luzia Hassel-Reusing, Thorner Str. 7, 42283 Wuppertal, 0202 / 2502621

Links:

Verfassungsbeschwerde vom 20.05.2010
Verfassungsbeschwerde vom 29.05.2010