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CeWeekly
Weekly analytical newsletter on the Baltic States, Central Europe, Germany and the Balkans (also available in Polish as BEST)

Contents

No. 7(19) | 2009-02-18
Also available in PDF

Analyses

  • The EU summit against economic protectionism and the rivalry for influence inside the EU

    The shape of the economic policy aimed at preventing the crisis from deepening has become the subject of a bitter dispute between the Czech Republic - currently holding the EU presidency - and countries which aspire to leadership in the community, especially France. Prague, supported by some small EU member states and the European Commission, opposes the protectionist economic programmes devised by France among other countries. The Czech Republic has promised to hold a special EU summit on 1 March to protect the common EU market. The summit will be another stage of the dispute over the position of small and medium countries vs. the big players, such as France and Germany, in the EU.

Events

 

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Treaty of Lisbon investigated by the German Constitutional Court
CeWeekly

2009-02-18

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On 10 and 11 February, the Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) started proceedings into complaints brought against the Treaty of Lisbon (TL). The panel of the Court and the fact that as much time as two days was devoted to considering the motions, which is unusually long, indicate that the Court attaches much greater significance to them than expected by constitutionalists and that the FCC may really deem some of the complaints reasonable. The verdict, which will be passed this May, may not only delay the ratification of the TL by Germany but even a complete rejection of the Treaty by that country.

The main point of the FCC's session was to verify compliance of the TL with the German constitution. The authors of the complaints see the Treaty as a threat to the sovereignty of German legislation and fear an excessive increase in the powers of EU institutions. Contrary to previous expectations, the Court is increasingly more likely to grant at least some of the complaints, especially considering the fact that if the TL comes into effect, the position of the FCC itself would weaken to the benefit of the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg. The fact that the panel of the judges who are considering this case includes Udo di Fabio and Siegfried Bross - who are known for their Eurosceptical views - additionally increases the risk of rejecting the Treaty. The German government also sees the seriousness of the situation, which has been proven by the participation of the Minister of Internal Affairs Wolfgang Schäuble and the Minister of Foreign Affairs Frank-Walter Steinmeier in the proceedings and their ardent defence of the TL in front of the Court. <zawil>

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