Friday 16 January 2009

German Constitutional Court will decide over Lisbon Treaty on 10-11 February

As one of the last countries (including Ireland where the Treaty has been rejected by a referendum and the Czech Republic, holding the current EU Council Presidency), Germany has not yet ratified the Lisbon Treaty.

On 10-11 February , the German Constitutional Court will hear five cases against the ratification of the Treaty issued by different complainants, including members of the German Bundestag (the parliament).

Afterwards we will know if the Treaty is unconstitutional and incompatible with the German Basic Law, or whether - which I expect - this Treaty is not so much different from previous Treaties that it will be approved by the Court as those before.

1 comments:

Ralf Grahn said...

Once upon the time, the German Constitutional Court raised doubts about the standard of fundamental rights in the European Union.

We now have the Charter (legally binding if the Lisbon Treaty enters into force).

Although the Lisbon Treaty gives the EU very few new powers, it streamlines the use of existing ones.

I would not be surprised, if - sooner or later - the German Constitutional Court started to question the lack of democratic legitimacy of decisions taken at European level, but without real democracy at the corresponding level.