Constitutional Policy in Unified Germany by Peter J. Cullen & Klaus H. Goetz

Author:Peter J. Cullen & Klaus H. Goetz [Cullen, Peter J. & Goetz, Klaus H.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, General
ISBN: 9780714646312
Google: F4yYQgAACAAJ
Barnesnoble:
Goodreads: 8192711
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 1995-01-15T07:42:29+00:00

The European Dimension

In addition to the need for further constitutional debate on domestic matters, European integration, both in and outside the European Union, poses strong challenges to the adaptive capacity of the Basic Law. Although, in most of the affected areas of constitutional law, textual drafts of amendments are, at the present stage, hardly feasible, the implications, particularly for the federal system, need to be identified and possible adaptive strategies be considered. Already, there is a working group of the Conference of Länder Ministers of European Affairs charged with preparing the Länder's response in the forthcoming negotiations on the revision of the Maastricht Treaty. Amongst the constitutional issues raised in this connection, possible future transfers of sovereign rights to institutions such as the CSCE and international organisations which link the European Union to the countries of central and eastern Europe are of special significance. If such transfers are not to create another 'open flank of the federal system', as did Article 24 in relation to European integration, there is clearly a growing constitutional need for the consent of the Bundesrat to such transfers, such as exists now in relation to the European Union in the new Article 23.

Some of the problems posed by the upcoming accession of new member states to the European Union in 1995 and the start of the negotiations on the revision of the Maastricht Treaty in 1996 have already been foreshadowed in the recent disputes on the size of the blocking minority in the Council of Ministers. These problems will inevitably focus on a new debate on federalism between the member states in the European Union. In order to ensure a more rational debate on this key topic, legal and political sciences need to identify and define the extent to which the existing structures of the European Union already contain elements of a federal organisation. These elements need to be made more widely understood and adequately developed. Misunderstandings in this area may be especially problematic in the UK, but also elsewhere in the Union.

For federal countries such as Germany, the concept of regionalism within a European federal system will also have to be shaped into a workable concept. Here, the new Committee of the Regions of the European Union will be of particular significance. Attention needs to be given to the working and legal relations between the Länder governments and the Länder legislatures regarding their participation in the Regional Committee; the duration of the Committee's members' mandates in view of the fact that Article 198a in Article G of the Union Treaty fixes a term of office of four years, whilst it could be argued that their mandates should end with the termination of their democratic legitimation 'back home'; and the conflict that can arise when Länder ministers participate in the Council of Ministers on the basis of the new versions of Article 146 of the EEC-Treaty and Article 23 of the Basic Law, simultaneously scrutinising their own decisions in the Council in their additional function as members of the Committee of the Regions.

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