1) Overdraft facilities or any other type of credit facility with the European Central Bank or with the central banks of the Member States (hereinafter referred to as « national central banks ») in favour of Union institutions, bodies, offices or agencies, central governments, regional, local or other public authorities, other bodies governed by public law, or public undertakings of Member States shall be prohibited, as shall the purchase directly from them by the European Central Bank or national central banks of debt instruments.
2) Paragraph 1 shall not apply to publicly owned credit institutions which, in the context of the supply of reserves by central banks, shall be given the same treatment by national central banks and the European Central Bank as private credit institutions.
Article 123 of The Lisbon Treaty
Sources:
Article 123 reproduces Article 104 of the Maastricht Treaty, which is also identical to Article 181 of the European Constitutional Treaty.
Why the ECB does not lend directly to states but requires interlocutory of private banks?
No direct link with the actual indebtedness of all the europeans states?