Dear Spotlight Reader,
We are reporting back after the summer break. The autumn is bound to be stormy. The fate of the Lisbon Treaty depends on the referendum in Ireland. Just in time before the general elections in Germany the Bundestag has rendered the Federal Republic of Germany capable of dealing with the Lisbon stipulations. The ruling of the German Constitutional Court on the Treaty of Lisbon was greeted with great relief in Germany and the rest of the European Union. The adoption of a package of European policy legislation means that nothing now stands in the way of ratification. On the other hand the thrust and character of the kind of European integration policy which will be pursued by the forthcoming German government is more uncertain than it has ever been.
In our current spotlight Europe, «Daring to be more European,» Joachim Fritz-Vannahme of the Bertelsmann Stiftung explains the consequences of the Karlsruhe ruling and points out what they will mean for the forthcoming German government and the time after the elections to the German Parliament on 27 September. The debates will become more controversial. Fritz-Vannahme thinks that this is not a bad thing. But in order to ensure that they are conducted on a higher level, the parties need more «European personnel.» And if «German politics is going to become Europeanized in such a far-reaching way, then it also needs a Minister for Europe.»
All editions of the spotlight europe can be downloaded from: www.bertelsmann-stiftung.de/spotlight