Abstract
Autore:
Rossolillo Giulia
Titolo:
"Gradualismo o salto federale? La corte costituzionale tedesca e il processo di integrazione europea"
The author analyzes the German Constitutional Court’s ruling on the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty pointing out the continuity with its previous rulings, especially with the decision on the ratification of the Maastricht Treaty. This continuity comes out from the statements on the nature of the European Union, which has, according to the Bundesverfassungsgericht, an essentially internationalist character. The Member States are, indeed, still the Masters of the Treaties, since they retain the right to determine the competences held at European level (Kompetenz-Kompetenz) and the power to withdraw from the Union: the European Union has, thus, even post-Lisbon, a confederal character, being an organisation founded on cooperation among sovereign states.
The author then underlines the role of the principle of democracy in the ruling at issue, stressing that the German Constitutional Court’s affirmations should be read as an indication of the limits of the functionalist method, on which the European integration process was based thus far, and not as an attempt to hinder the unification process. The Bundesverfassungsgericht, indeed, does not rule out the possibility that the EU might become a federal state. This transformation is according to the Court, possible, but it requires the exercice of constituent power, i.e. a decision to be adopted by the citizens outside the framework of the current national and EU law mechanisms. This is, also in the author’s view, the only solution capable of guaranteeing the respect of the democratic principles.
