Human Rights Obligations of European Financial Assistance Mechanisms
Having been affected by the European financial crisis that erupted in 2008, several EU Member States required financial assistance beyond that available in the financial markets. New financial assistance mechanisms, such as the EFSF and ESM, were created under international law and all financial assistance packages included the participation of the IMF. Despite their differences, these financial assistance schemes all combined supranational and international legal instruments and institutions. The hybrid nature of this European financial assistance raises the question of whether the actors involved in the award of the assistance are bound by EU and international human rights. Against this background, this chapter assesses financial assistance conditionality as applied by the different financial institutions from an EU and international human rights perspective, aiming to respond to the question whether European and international actors are bound by human rights when preparing financial assistance conditions.