O Insurgente

Julho 8, 2009

Spend! Spend! Spend!

Filed under: Cartoons,Economia,Internacional,Política — André Azevedo Alves @ 20:54

A cartoon, circa 1934, during the Great Depression

1 Comentário »

  1. GERMANY’S LISBON TREATY RULING
    Brussels Put Firmly in the Back Seat

    By SPIEGEL Staff

    Last week’s ruling by the German Constitutional Court, coupled with demands by one conservative party for changes to the constitution, may not only jeopardize Berlin’s schedule for the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty. The Karlsruhe ruling also threatens future steps toward European integration.

    …

    In addition to undermining the effectiveness of Germany’s ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, this could tip the scales for the other European countries that have yet to ratify — namely Ireland, Poland and the Czech Republic. The conditions posed by the court in Karlsruhe will make things “much more difficult than we had imagined,” the leaders of the conservative parliamentary group that combines the CDU and CSU admitted late last week.

    That’s putting it mildly. The Bavarians’ “Gauweiler” tactics only provide an inkling of the inner political strife that is in store for Germany. Despite the premature cries of triumph among staunch EU supporters in the ruling coalition and in Brussels, last Tuesday’s ruling on the Lisbon Treaty will yet unleash rage and tears of frustration.

    Now that the court in Karlsruhe has spelled out Germany’s role in European unification, this heralds the end of a policy of increasing integration. According to the judges, Germany’s future lies not in “a united Europe” — but rather in Germany. In the future, the most powerful EU partner will also be the most difficult one, even if — despite Gauweiler’s legal challenge — it ends up unconditionally ratifying the Lisbon Treaty.

    This would be true even without the conditions proposed by the CSU. The German Constitutional Court has found its own unique way of effectively putting the brakes on European policy.

    The judges wrote that “if obvious transgressions of boundaries take place when the European Union claims competences,” then they will call for a “review” to “preserve the inviolable core content of the Basic Law’s constitutional identity.”

    That is the kind of wording that goes beyond the dreams of Gauweiler and his friends. It simply means that the court assumes the right to single-handedly determine the boundaries of European integration — in a broad sense and, if necessary, in detail.

    …

    No matter what the representatives of the Berlin government decide at the Council of Ministers in Brussels, their decisions will be subjected to three possible tests back home. First, the court wants to ensure that the EU does not overstep its contractual competences. Second, the judges intend to enforce the “subsidiary principal” enshrined in EU law, which largely prohibits Brussels from taking action if a member state can handle the issues in question just as effectively on its own. Third, the judges now reserve the right to conduct an “identity check,” in other words, to test whether Germany still performs the functions that the Constitutional Court itself has defined as national tasks of government.

    …

    At the same time, however, by more strongly tying the Germans to the political body in Brussels, the court has limited the highhandedness of the German government, which has all too often pushed through political goals that were difficult to achieve back home by going behind the back or against the will of the Bundestag. One example that comes to mind is a statement by the former Economics Minister Wolfgang Clement, a member of the Social Democrats, who voted in favor of an EU software patent guideline in 2005, overriding an explicit decision on the matter by the vast majority of the Bundestag. He said that the will of the German parliament “could not be conveyed internationally.” And the latest violation of the constitutional principles of data self-determination, namely data retention, was also pushed through by the German government, via Brussels, and against the will of the Bundestag.

    http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,634506,00.html

    Comentário por lucklucky — Julho 8, 2009 @ 21:51


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