European Union – EU Institutions. The Court of Justice of the European Union gave a preliminary ruling, deciding that the relevant provisions of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and Protocol (No 4) on the Statute of the European System of Central Banks and of the European Central Bank should be interpreted as permitting the European System of Central Banks to adopt a programme for the purchase of government bonds on secondary markets, such as the programme announced in the press release to which reference was made in the minutes of the 340th meeting of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) on 5 and 6 September 2012.