By Nenad Radicevic

Two months since the Treaty of Lisbon was promised the second chance by European leaders` concessions to the Irish demands, this agreement has stumbled on another problem - and it occurred in a country that supported the Lisbon Treaty adoption from the very beginning. Despite the initial encouragement of Bundesrat and Bundestag (Germany`s upper and lower House of Parliament), more than 50 German delegates and politicians coming from different political parties have initiated legal process against this act regarding the EU reform before the Federal Constitutional Court located in Karlsruhe, because they believe that the adoption of the Lisbon Treaty would seriously violate the German constitution. Although Berlin authorities have decided not to express concernment, two-day hearing on this issue has increased fears that the Federal Constitutional Court could ask for amendment to the Lisbon Treaty or even demand referendum on this act.

Led by Peter Gauweiler, delegate from Christian Social Union of Bavaria, a political party which is a part of ruling coalition, these German delegates intend to reduce the EU powers increasement, which is, according to them, granted by the Lisbon Treaty. They also believe that once the Lisbon Treaty is being adopted, Parliament in Berlin will degrade and Germany will loose its sovereignty.

In their explanation German parliamentarians gave an example of this problem, in which a regulation on light bulbs prohibition is hypothetically not being accepted by Bundestag. If German Minister of Environment puts this initiative before the European Council, and if it is by any chance accepted by ministers from other EU countries, this initiative will be treated as the European Commission Directive, and according to the Lisbon Treaty it will thus be introduced in German legislation, even though it was previously rejected by Bundestag.

During the hearing, few out of eight judges of the Federal Constitutional Court have expressed scepticism on further EU integration of Germany concerning constitutional effects. As German media report, the discussion was focused on criminal law, as well as on defining where do the responsibility of EU member countries ends and EU authority begins.

The Federal Constitutional Judge Herbert Landau said that the EU authority over criminal law effects on key issues concerning the German legislation jurisdiction.

"These matters concern the common values of our people", says the judge, while his colleague Udo Do Fabio, who has prepared the procedure and who will deliver a verdict, has asked will the pooling of sovereignty to the EU bring more freedom to European citizens.

This process has also a political connotation, because initiators of this legal process are not only Gauweiler but politicians who share different political opinion,  and well-known persons to German publicity in other way - the leaders of oppositional Left Oscar Laffontaine and Gregor Gyzi, the ex-director of Tisen concern Dieter Spethmann and Franz Ludwig Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, who is known not only as former delegate at the European Parliament, but also as the grandson of a man who stood behind the Hitler`s unsuccessful assassination in July 1944.

On the other hand, the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty was defended by the Vice Chancellor and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and the Minister of the Interior Wolfgang Schauble. Being the exponents of Angela Merkel`s cabinet, they refuse to qualify this document as unconstitutional.

"The Treaty of Lisbon expressly strengthens the democratic fundamentals of the European Union", said German Chief of Diplomacy, adding that from now on German Parliament will participate in the European decision-making process.

The Treaty of Lisbon provides more freedom to national parliaments in executing supervision over the European Parliament.

The judges from the Federal Constitutional Court are expected to reach the verdict in one month, but most probably in the beginning of summer. According to the legal experts` estimates, the Court could demand the referendum on ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, but it can also ask for this document`s modification. In this case, the Treaty of Lisbon could easily be proclaimed "dead definitely", as a anonymous source said for the Die Velt daily.

But the Lisbon Treaty`s destiny depends not only on Germany, because the process of ratification waits its realisation in Czech Republic, Poland and Ireland.

The Czech Upper House has postponed the discussion on the Lisbon Treaty ratification until the April, and on top of everything this document has recognised its opponents in a ruling coalition`s political party and in the President of Czech Republic Vaclav Klaus, who is also known as prominent eurosceptic. Polish Parliament has ratified this treaty, but the President Lech Kaczynski has promised that he would sign the document only after the Irish do it first.

However, the encouraging news come from Dublin, where the Ireland`s leading opposition political party insists that the referendum on the Lisbon Treaty should be held in April, not in autumn as it was previously planned, in order to surpass the global economic crisis which has struck this county as well. Colm Burke, EP`s member coming from oppositional party Fine Gael, believes that Ireland must immediately demonstrate its true devotion to the European Union duo to financial crisis.

As soon as this document becomes valid, the EU will certainly function more efficient and new enlargements can be expected. Majority voting and establishment of the EU President, instead of the current practice which implies the system in which another country presides the EU in six month period is one of the things that differs from the Maastricht Treaty.