Germany’s highest court ruled yesterday that the EU’s Lisbon reform treaty was compatible with national law, but demanded changes to domestic legislation before the treaty can be ratified.
The decision by the Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe removes one of several remaining hurdles for the treaty, which aims to give the bloc stronger leadership, a more effective foreign policy and a fairer decision-making system.
All 27 member states must ratify the Lisbon Treaty for it to take effect.
“To sum up, the Basic Law says ‘yes’ to the Lisbon Treaty but demands a strengthening of parliamentary responsibilities at the national level,” presiding judge Andreas Vosskuhle said, referring to Germany’s post-war Constitution. “The Court is confident that the final hurdle before ratification will be cleared quickly.”
The Lisbon Treaty is a watered-down version of the EU constitution that was vetoed by French and Dutch voters in 2005.
FIGHTING IRISH
The new document was dealt a heavy blow one year ago when Irish voters rejected it in a referendum.
Ireland is due to vote again in early October after winning assurances from EU partners that the treaty will not threaten Irish stances on abortion, taxation and military neutrality.
The German legal challenge came from more than 50 deputies in the Bundestag lower house of parliament, among them members of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative bloc and the far-left Linke, or “left” party.
Maverick conservative Peter Gauweiler from the Bavarian Christian Social Union led the fight against Lisbon, arguing it would allow EU leaders to circumvent their national parliaments and push decisions through in Brussels instead.
In a nod to those concerns, the court said an appendix to the law that was approved by the lower and upper houses of parliament last year, paving the way for ratification, must be altered before German President Horst Koehler can sign off on it.
BALANCE OF POWER
Specifically, the court said the appendix needed to make clear that both houses, the Bundestag and Bundesrat, had a role to play in shaping decisions taken in Brussels.
Norbert Roettgen, parliamentary floor leader for Merkel’s conservatives, said the ruling parties planned to agree the required changes by early September. The Bundestag lower house could then vote on the draft law on Sept. 8, he said.
The core complaint from the rebel lawmakers — that the Lisbon treaty violated German law — was rejected.
In addition to the Irish vote, the treaty faces other hurdles. Euro-skeptic presidents in the Czech Republic and Poland have refused to rubber-stamp the treaty pending the result of the second Irish referendum.
The EU is racing to get the treaty ratified by all 27 members by the end of the year to prevent such a move.
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
ANGER: A video shared online showed residents in a neighborhood confronting the national security minister, attempting to drag her toward floodwaters Argentina’s port city of Bahia Blanca has been “destroyed” after being pummeled by a year’s worth of rain in a matter of hours, killing 13 and driving hundreds from their homes, authorities said on Saturday. Two young girls — reportedly aged four and one — were missing after possibly being swept away by floodwaters in the wake of Friday’s storm. The deluge left hospital rooms underwater, turned neighborhoods into islands and cut electricity to swaths of the city. Argentine Minister of National Security Patricia Bullrich said Bahia Blanca was “destroyed.” The death toll rose to 13 on Saturday, up from 10 on Friday, authorities
Two daughters of an Argentine mountaineer who died on an icy peak 40 years ago have retrieved his backpack from the spot — finding camera film inside that allowed them a glimpse of some of his final experiences. Guillermo Vieiro was 44 when he died in 1985 — as did his climbing partner — while descending Argentina’s Tupungato lava dome, one of the highest peaks in the Americas. Last year, his backpack was spotted on a slope by mountaineer Gabriela Cavallaro, who examined it and contacted Vieiro’s daughters Guadalupe, 40, and Azul, 44. Last month, the three set out with four other guides
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
RSS