German court halts ratification of Lisbon Treaty

June 30, 2009 by Infowars Ireland

Germany's top court, seen here, has said additional national legislation is needed before the EU's Lisbon Treaty can be ratified, further delaying its adoption across the 27-member bloc.

KARLSRUHE, Germany (AFP) – The EU’s Lisbon Treaty may not be ratified in Germany until legislation has been put in place to safeguard national parliamentary powers, the country’s top court ruled on Tuesday.

In a keenly-awaited decision, the Federal Constitutional Court said the document “may not be adopted until the sufficient legal groundwork for parliamentary participation as foreseen in the constitution has been laid.”

“If one wanted to summarise this result, one could say: the constitution says ‘yes’ to the Lisbon Treaty but demands that parliament’s right to participation be strengthened at the national level,” the court said.

“The court is confident that the last barrier for adopting the ratification document will be cleared.”

Following the court’s judgement, a spokeswoman for the centre-left Social Democrats announced that Germany’s parliament would hold special sessions on August 26 and September 8 to debate a law allowing the treaty to pass.

A German member of the European Parliament, Jo Leinen, told AFP: “The political will is there, there will be no delay.”

Joachim Fritz-Vannahme, a European affairs analyst at the Bertelsmann Foundation, agreed.

“I can well expect this to happen as quickly as possible so that the ratification … is not slowed down any more,” he said, adding that the exact time-frame was still unclear.

“There is enough time. There are enough legal experts in both parliamentary chambers to be able to find the correct formulation … the Bundestag and the Bundesrat now have to sit down and get down to work,” he said.

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