EU Treaty Ratification Temporarily Delayed by German High Court
Posted on 30. Jun, 2009 by Xander in Headlines
Karin Matussek and James G. Neuger
Bloomberg
June 30, 2009
Germany’s highest court temporarily delayed ratification of the planned European Union governing treaty, adding a new hitch on the obstacle-strewn road to strengthening the EU’s role on the world stage.
While declaring the Lisbon Treaty in line with Germany’s constitution, the Federal Constitutional Courtordered lawmakers to modify the national legislation enacting it. Chancellor Angela Merkel said she expects the law to be in place before German national elections are held on Sept. 27.
“We will implement it in this legislative period,” Merkel said at a press conference today in Berlin. European Commission President Jose Barroso, in a statement read in Brussels, said he was “confident” all EU states will complete ratification of the Lisbon Treaty by autumn.
The German delay may buy time for opponents of the treaty elsewhere in the EU, potentially undercutting efforts to forge a united European front in combating the deepest recession since World War II. Ireland, Poland and the Czech Republic are the three countries in addition to Germany that still haven’t ratified the Lisbon Treaty.
Andreas Vosskuhle, the presiding judge, said in a ruling from Karlsruhe that Germany’s Basic Law — the constitution — “says yes to the Lisbon Treaty, but demands at national level a strengthening of the Parliament’s involvement.”
The Lisbon Treaty would create the post of permanent president and foreign minister, give the EU more powers to fight crime and control immigration, and strengthen the democratically elected European Parliament. Twenty-three of the EU’s 27 countries have ratified it.
Irish Vote
Until today, the main obstacle to the required unanimous ratification of the treaty was a veto last year in a referendum in Ireland. EU leaders offered guarantees this month that the treaty won’t shrink Ireland’s sovereignty, prompting the Irish government to plan a second vote in early October that polls show is likely to pass.
Presidents of two other countries — the Czech Republic and Poland — have also withheld their signatures on the ratification documents until the Irish veto is lifted.
“This message could help the Lisbon Treaty in Ireland,” said Jan Techau, an EU expert at the German Council on Foreign Relations, speaking by phone from Karlsruhe. “Given that the entire Lisbon Treaty itself was affirmed by the court, the view in Ireland may be that what’s good for Germany can’t be bad for Ireland.”
Merkel Imprint
The ruling in Germany — at the heart of European integration since defeat and disgrace in World War II — targeted the EU’s status in national law and stopped short of forcing EU governments to renegotiate the treaty.
The treaty bears the imprint of Merkel, who chaired the all-night summit that mapped out the document in 2007. The Bundestag, the lower house of Germany’s parliament, approved it 514-58 in April 2008.
“To preserve democratic self-determination it’s necessary that this court watches that the EU doesn’t violate our constitutional identity and doesn’t evidently transgress the competences it was granted,” the court said.
The ruling by the eight-judge panel echoed a 1993 verdict on the EU’s Maastricht Treaty, which gave birth to the euro. At the time, the judges said Germany must ensure that EU rulemaking remains democratically legitimate.
Using the same rationale today, the judges ordered a rewrite of legislation to extend the German parliament’s “right of participation” in EU-level decisions.
Left Party
Six separate cases were ruled on today. Along with 50 lawmakers, one of the challengers was Franz Ludwig Graf von Stauffenberg, son of the German army officer who planted the bomb that failed to kill Adolf Hitler on July 20, 1944.
“That ratification was stopped by the court shows how much parliament’s participation rights were violated,” the opposition Left Party said in a statement. “It’s only thanks to our suit that parliament’s self-disempowerment was stopped.”