German Court clears EU treaty for House approval

German Attorney-at-law Andreas Geiger told EurActiv that "the German Constitutional Court in fact states that no ratification of the Lisbon treaty in Germany is possible, as long as the German law implementing the Lisbon Treaty is not changed: 

Abstentions in the German Parliament regarding further EU integration should not be counted as "yes" but as "no" votes. The Court is obviously protecting the German parliamentarians from their own action, not trusting they are able to speak up in case they are against something. 

Geiger described this as "very strange: in Germany we always had a tradition of judicial self-restraint, meaning the Constitutional Court being very cautious, trying not to interfere with the other constitutional bodies' decisions and procedures, i.e. in this case with the German Parliament. Here, the Court obviously claims to be more competent in deciding this matter than the Parliament itself. And it is neglecting the fact that the Lisbon Treaty was signed by the German government before - which is de facto the majority of the German Parliament". 

Further, he added, "the Court uses an unexpectedly undiplomatic tone towards the EU institutions. For example: "Neither as regards its composition nor its position in the European competence structure is the European Parliament sufficiently prepared to take representative and assignable majority decisions as uniform decisions on political direction. Measured against requirements placed on democracy in states, its election does not take due account of equality, and it is not competent to take authoritative decisions on political direction in the context of the supranational balancing of interest between the states." 

Geiger concluded that "this is unbelievably arrogant, completely neglecting everything the EP has achieved over the last decades. If I was an MEP, I would freak out. This wording can only be explained with a regrettably nationalistic perspective which I thought we had overcome for a long time. But probably it's just sheer fear of the Court, being afraid of finally losing the rest of its national competences". 

European Commission President José Manuel Barroso said: "I welcome the judgement of the German Constitutional Court. It confirms that the Treaty of Lisbon is in conformity with the German Constitution. I am confident that with this judgement, the Court has cleared the way for a swift conclusion of the German ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon, and I welcome the intentions already stated in this respect by German legislators." 

He added that "the Treaty of Lisbon is essential for the EU's capacity to act in the present times. The Constitutional Court's judgement echoes the important innovations in the Treaty of Lisbon, in particular the strengthening of the democratic legitimacy of the European Union. The new powers for the European Parliament coupled with the direct role of national parliaments in the decision-making process, recognised for the first time by this treaty, are important steps forward". 

"I am confident that we can complete the process of ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon in all countries by the autumn," he concluded.

Rebecca Harms and Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Co-Presidents of the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament, said: "The Greens welcome the German Constitutional Court's judgment dismissing constitutional objections to the Lisbon Treaty. Although it ruled changes were necessary to German national legislation that accompanies the treaty, one more hurdle to the ratification of these crucial reforms has been removed". 

They aded that the Greens "expect the German Bundestag will make the necessary revisions to accompanying legislation before its elections in September. Following a positive vote in the Czech Senate, today marks another step forward for democracy, citizens' rights and the European Union. The ruling also sends a positive message to Irish citizens in the lead-up to their referendum".