Stoppt Karlsruhe die EU-Verfassung?

Bavarian member of the Bundesrat, Dr. Peter Gauweiler has thrown a spanner into the rapid German ratification process. By referring Constitutional Treaty to the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe. This action could well delay ratification until after the French vote on May the 29th. By claiming that the Treaty n the Constitution would affect German Basic Law on a “deep and basic” level he has forced the Court to look at it.

This act byu rthe Bavarian has left the German political establishment spitting with rage. Elmar Brok (CDU), Klaus Hänsch (PSE) even the Free Democrats – who argued for a referendum, safe in th knowledge that it wouldn’t be granted - have lined up to attack him. If he wins Germany will have to offer its people a referendum on the Constituution, a position its politicians will do almost anything to avoid.

Gauweiler refuses to be cowed. He makes the point that the Constitution would hurts the basic
democratic fundamental principle, according to which all government authority proceeds from the people. His actions are part based on the views of Professor of constitutional law Karl Albrecht Schachtschneider. The man who in the 90’s forced the Karlsruher Court into reserving to itself the right to observe the further development of the European Union legislation and demanding that "tasks and powers must remain to the German Bundestag of substantial weight".