Decision of German Federal constitutional court on the Lisbon Treaty

The German constititutional court has released its decision on the Lisbon Treaty. While recognizing the Lisbon Treaty as constitutional in principle, the Court criticizes the lack of democratic legitimacy of the structures to be established. Consequently, the Court suspends the ratification until further measures have been taken to allow federal and regional parliaments to participate in the political process of decision making. See also the english Press Release. One may ask why the EU governments responsible for this Treaty haven't given the EU Parliament more weight in the political process thus ending up in such democratic vacuum. Das Bundesverfassungsgericht hat in seiner Entscheidung zum Vertrag von Lissabon klargestellt, dass der Vertrag im Prinzip möglich ist. Allerdings wurde eine mangelnde demokratische Legitima…