Split of constitutional complaint proceedings isolating challenges to the ECB's Corporate Sector Purchase Programme under Decision (EU) 2016/948

In a procedural ruling dated January 14, 2020, the German Federal Constitutional Court ordered the separation of specific issues from the pending constitutional complaints (Cases 2 BvR 859/15 and 2 BvR 980/16), transferring them to new case files (2 BvR 71/20 and 2 BvR 72/20) for continued adjudication; no substantive merits judgment was rendered in this decision. The dispute concerns constitutional challenges to the European Central Bank’s Corporate Sector Purchase Programme (PSPP) as established by Decision (EU) 2016/948, specifically questioning the legality of the central bank’s purchases of corporate bonds. The operative legal basis for the split is procedural, isolating claims related to the PSPP for distinct review under constitutional law, thereby determining which specific normative acts are subject to the subsequent, separate proceedings.