Court in the act

27 July 2009

Brussels has gone all cagey about the judgement of Germany's highest court on the recycled EU Constitution, now known as the Lisbon Treaty, writes Stephen Gardner. The first reaction of the Eurocrats was a round of backslapping, because the court said the Treaty was in compliance with Germany's Basic Law, and could thus be adopted by the EU's biggest country. But relief has given way to panic. Closer analysis of the long and extremely complex judgement has shown that it also severely curbs any notions of a federal Europe. According to the German judges, the European Parliament is not a parliament in any proper sense (surprise!), and this is a "structural democratic deficit" preventing further EU integration. The judges also note that German law "prohibits the transfer [to the EU] of competence to decide on its own competence" – in other words, the Commission must abandon the empire-building delusions it too often displays. But most damning of all for Commission president José Manuel Barroso is that the German judges have said that Germany's highest court should be able to overturn judgements of the European Court of Justice, if they are not in line with national law. As the EU edifice is based on EU law having primacy in certain areas, this would, er, seem to put in question the whole European project. Barroso has said he will respond to the judgement "at a certain point," so watch this space. A version of this article was published in Private Eye.

 

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