GERMAN RATIFICATION:CHANCELLOR ANGELA Merkel has welcomed Germany's ratification of the Lisbon Treaty after months of delays and yesterday's dismissal of a last-minute challenge by the constitutional court.
The Bill anchoring the treaty into German law will be published in Berlin today after being signed into law by President Horst Köhler on Tuesday evening.
Tomorrow, Mr Köhler will sign the treaty charter, which, once deposited in Rome, will make Germany the 24th of 27 EU member states to ratify.
The Czech Republic, Poland and Ireland have yet to ratify the treaty and Berlin hopes its ratification will send a positive signal.
“It’s very gratifying that Germany . . . can deposit the documents for the Lisbon Treaty before the Irish referendum,” said Dr Merkel.
Berlin observers expressed doubt yesterday that the move would impress Prague and Warsaw. Polish president Lech Kaczynski has said he will sign the treaty into law if Irish voters vote Yes in next month’s referendum. Czech president Vaclav Klaus has linked his actions to political developments in Britain.
“Both Kaczynski and Klaus are lone riders who are not easily influenced by external factors,” said Jan Techau, director of the Alfred von Oppenheim Centre for European Policy Studies. “I don’t think [Klaus] ever believed that Germany would not ratify. But he does believe that a Tory government can derail Lisbon.”
British opposition leader David Cameron has written to Klaus confirming his intention to hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty if he wins power next year and the treaty is not yet in force.
Mr Cameron’s letter to Mr Klaus “firmly restates our current public position” on the European Union’s reform treaty, a spokeswoman for Mr Cameron said.
German ratification was delayed by several constitutional challenges, dismissed in June by the constitutional court in Karlsruhe.
In its ruling, the court ordered changes to the accompanying laws regulating the role of the German parliament in EU affairs.
After weeks of hasty redrafting, a four-Bill package was passed by both houses of parliament.
Earlier this week a Berlin academic lodged a further complaint in Karlsruhe that the revised laws failed to guarantee the court’s role as “guardian of the constitution” and failed to equip the Bundestag adequately on integration matters.
The court dismissed the challenge yesterday as inadmissible.
Germany’s Left Party, which opposes the treaty, said President Köhler was “rash” to act ahead of the Irish vote.