German constitutional court to rule on ECB bond-buying program in June

Germany's constitutional court is to make a final judgment in June on the European Central Bank's program to purchase bonds from troubled eurozone member states, said the court on Wednesday.

The German court said it would pronounce the judgment on the ECB's Outright Monetary Transactions program on June 21.

The program was launched in August 2012 to ease the European debt crisis by purchasing sovereign bonds of eurozone member states in need of financial assistance in secondary markets.

It was never used, but analysts said the program helped comfort investors and saved the eurozone from collapsing.

However, some 35,000 German plaintiffs claimed the program violated German and European Union law. The case was referred by Germany's constitutional court in February 2014 to the Court of Justice of the European Union which later supported the ECB's program.

In the next month, the German constitutional court will judge whether the program violated the German constitution. Endit