As reported last week (UPC case to progress up BVerfG’s 2019 case list), the Second Senate of the German Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht, BVerfG) will hand down its decision in the second case (“Banking Union”) on rapporteur Justice Huber’s 2019 case list on 30 July 2019, and progress on the first listed case was expected shortly as the CJEU gave its decision in December 2018 on a referral. The BVerfG has today announced here that its Second Senate will hold an oral hearing in that first case (“ECB bond purchase program”) on 30 and 31 July 2019. On 30 July the decision in “Banking Union” will be handed down in the morning, and then the oral hearing in “ECB bond purchase program” will start in the afternoon. Under the BVerfG’s procedure, a decision must be handed down within three months of an oral hearing. It remains to be seen whether the case concerning Germany’s ratification of the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court (UPC) will be decided this year (as the BVerfG intends). That case is fifth on Justice Huber’s list, and cases have usually, but not always, been decided in the order listed; as reported, there has been some speculation that it may be heard together with the third case on the list – the “EPO case”.