Photograph: Jennifer Gauthier / Bloomberg
Photograph: Jennifer Gauthier / Bloomberg
The supreme court of Germany filed a lawsuit by the legislature, with greater control over participation CETA Trade agreement between European Union and Canada.
Federal Constitutional Court on Tuesday in Karlsruhe. Refused A lawsuit by opposition party Die Linke alleged that the German parliament failed to adequately monitor trade negotiations and that it should have passed a law on the government’s role in the EU-Canada negotiations in 2016.
The court said the lawsuit was unfair because the German constitution does not allow the legislature to strengthen the European Union only by passing legislation.
“If the European Union violates the powers delegated to it, such a process is unconstitutional,” said Doris Koenig, the court’s vice president. “The passage of the law cannot justify such action in advance.”
Tuesday’s decision neither prohibits nor clears CETA. Many complaints are still pending with the Supreme Court. In an interlocutory decision in October 2016, the tribunal allowed the country to temporarily ratify parts of the treaty, and the treaty came into force provisional nearly a year later. Should the court eventually make a negative decision, Germany may still be forced to withdraw from CETA.
The Left, also known as the Left Party, and other groups in Germany are against the trade agreement and claim in court that the EU signed the agreement without the authority to do so. Some of the issues covered by Pact are areas on which only Member States can decide, they claim. These cases have been pending for almost a decade and a half.
In Tuesday’s ruling, judges said lawmakers had done enough to question the process and address controversial issues of EU powers.
The judges wrote that most MPs at the time asked the government to ensure that provisional enforcement of the treaty does not violate areas in which member states can maintain control.
The case is of BVerfG, 2 BvE 4/16.
Updates with the vice president of court testimony in the third paragraph
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