Germany Approves EU Constitution

[Kellanved]

German parliamentarians overwhelmingly approved the EU constitution on Thursday. While the treaty has been at the center of impassioned public debate in France, it has failed to ignite similar interest in Germany.

With 569 yes votes, 23 no votes and two abstentions, the German Bundestag approved the new European Union Constitution.

The result masks growing public unease at the EU's direction. But reservations about the constitution have failed to gain momentum, partially due to widespread ignorance of its finer points.


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http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,1564,1581297,00.html

[dutchdoctor]

1. Was there no referendum?

Would the german public have voted it down?

[Kellanved]

2. possibly

But in the good tradition of the Basic Law, the federal republic's constitution, there was none.
In fact the basic law doesn't allow referenda.

Originally the clause was meant to require a national assembly about the basic law in the case of reunification; but that part was removed when the reunification became likely.

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. Can you throw any light on this, Kellanved?

"But reservations about the constitution have failed to gain momentum, partially due to widespread ignorance of its finer points."

What are these 'finer points' that Deutsche Welle thinks would have increased oppostion to the constitution if more people knew about them?

[Kellanved]

4. there is little to no public interest in the constitution's content

Just as the German parties always campaign for the European elections with national issues alone, there were hardly any attempts to communicate the European aspects of the constitution.

Even the little criticism articulated tended to revolve around giving up sovereignty; demoting the Federal Parliament and national identity/"pride". But even a healthier debate would have - at best - taken about one week to get reduced to personal issues.

I am and was in favor of adopting the EU constitution, but the way it was done was a bad joke. I see why it was done this way; I probably wouldn't have done it differently, but it leaves a bad aftertaste anyway.