Judgment_paragraph 108 · Alessandro Accorinti and Others v European Central Bank (T-79/13)

108Thus, the creation, through the conclusion and implementation of the exchange agreement of 15 February 2012, of the alleged ‘preferential creditor status’ of the Eurosystem central banks in order to escape the restructuring of the Greek public debt through the PSI and in application of the CACs cannot be regarded as abusive or as exceeding the limits of the ECB’s powers. On the contrary, those measures form part of the exercise of the ECB’s powers and basic tasks in that they are specifically intended to preserve the central banks’ scope for manoeuvre and to ensure the continuity of the smooth functioning of the Eurosystem (see paragraph 93 above). The same applies to Decision 2012/153 in that it requires the Hellenic Republic to provide the national central banks with enhanced credit so that they may continue to accept Greek bonds as appropriate collateral for the purposes of Eurosystem credit operations within the meaning of the second indent of Article 18(1) of the Statute (see paragraph 94 above).