Germany's top court has ruled that aid for Greece and rescue packages for other eurozone countries is legal but says parliament must have greater say in any future bailout deal.
In a landmark ruling on Wednesday, the Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe, western Germany, said all "large-scale" future aid packages must be approved by the parliament's budget committee.
Earlier, Holger Schmieding from Berenberg Bank said the court will "set strict conditions for future support packages, insisting that any significant decision on help for other euro members needs to be approved by the German parliament,"
The judges ruled on a complaint brought by six eurosceptics, who argue that the initial 110-billion-euro ($154-billion) EU-IMF rescue of Greece in May 2010 and the setting up of the EFSF contravenes both German and EU law.
They say the rescues, for which Germany has set aside billions of euros (dollars) worth of guarantees, break the "no bailout rule" in the EU treaties, which says one member state may not assume the debt of another.
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The rescue packages are made up of loans, which in the case of the EFSF are made from funds raised on the markets against guarantees provided by eurozone governments.
The court ruling comes just weeks before the German parliament, the Bundestag, votes on strengthening EFSF amid mounting scepticism both from politicians and from the public, with Merkel facing a rebellion from within her own coalition.
