Merkel's Constitution hopes on ice [fr] [de]

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Following the ratification of the Constitution by the two houses of the German Parliament in May 2005, the Conservative Parliamentarian Peter Gauweiler took legal action against the pending final act - the signature of the treaty by President Horst Köhler. Gauweiler argued that the treaty did not provide sufficient guarantees for basic rights as opposed to EU legislative decisions, did not have sufficient democratic legitimisation, was in contradiction with the economic principles laid down in the German constitution and legitimised an EU Court of Justice that was founded on insufficient legal principles. 

Immediately following Gauweiler's legal action, both houses of Parliament attempted to have his complaint dismissed as "obviously unfounded". The Court, however, did not follow suit. Following this decision, German President Horst Köhler promised not to to sign the treaty before the Court had made its decision, which is has now postponed without a clear deadline. 

Siegfried Broß, rapporteur for the Court's Second Senate, wrote: "Faced with the ongoing discussions on a continuation of the European constitutional process following the failed referenda in France and the Netherlands and with the European Union's plans to present a road map for a possibly changed treaty with a new name under the German presidency during the first half of 2007, I do not see a need to prioritise a decision on the pending constitutional complaint against the ratification law." 

Broß added that the Constitutional Court could not take a decision as long as EU discussion were going on because "this could bring the Court in a position of actively participating in shaping the European constitutional process, which would be incompatible with its role as bearer of last-instance decision competence".

Gauweiler is a member of the Bundestag and comes from the CSU, the Bavarian sister party of Chancellor Angela Merkel's CDU. His successful complaint puts a question mark behind Merkel's pledge to restart the ratification process for the constitutional treaty throughout Europe. 

Merkel had hoped for the 'Berlin Declaration', to be signed in the German capital by the European Parliament and the Commission on 25 March 2007, to send out a strong signal to those countries which have not yet signed the treaty. Now she finds herself at the helm of one such country. The decision reduces the number of countries which have ratified the Treaty to 15. 

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