Sousa, António Manuel Carneiro da Frada Marques deTorres, Margarida Gagliardini Graça Pinheiro2019-04-032019-02-282018http://hdl.handle.net/10400.14/27226The sovereign debt crisis of 2010 involved a serious reform to the economic governance of the European Union, including the way the EU financially assists Member States when in difficulties. The conditionality attached to an adjustment program often requires the adoption of economic, financial and public policies intended to cut sovereign public debt. When choosing those policies, Member States, under the pressure to comply with such conditionality, often adopt austerity measures that interfere with citizens’ Fundamental Rights. Such reality led to the increase of crisis-related litigation in national courts but also in the Court of Justice of the EU; in most of the crisis-related cases that reached the Court of Justice of the European Union, the Court has chosen to be silent on this matter, arguing that it had no jurisdiction because the question being referred did not fall within the scope of EU Law. The Florescu case is the first decision where the Court recognised its jurisdiction concerning sovereign debt crisis cases, by deciding to answer at least, some of the issues surrounding the bailout programs under balance of payments: the unsolved issue of the legal nature of the MoUs, the question of whether or not it represents implementation of EU Law and thus subject to the jurisdiction of the Court and to the Charter of Fundamental Rights. I will discuss the main questions of the case by analysing it considering the previous case law of the Court. First the legal nature of the MoU will be addressed, in particular if it is considered an act of EU Law and if it has legal binding effects to the Member State under the adjustment program and to the EU Institutions. I will then examine the arguments of the Court concerning the application of the Charter in Florescu and in the recent case Associação Sindical dos Juizes Portugueses. We will then focus on the Proportionality Test carried out and the content of the Right to Property, in light of the CJEU and the ECtHR case law. Furthermore, the thesis will illustrate how the Court is breaking its silence on the legal nature of the Memoranda of Understanding and consequently, on the application of the Charter of Fundamental Rights to austerity measures adopted under an adjustment program, such as Balance of Payments or the European Financial Stability Facility.engFinancial crisisAdjustment programsAusterity measuresBalance of paymentsEconomic governanceFundamental rightsThe role of the courtFlorescumaster thesis202208567