The Pitfalls of EU Citizenship.
March 24, 2005 by Ken
Filed under The Best of the Rest
The Pitfalls of EU Citizenship.
The first application of the European Arrest Warrant to a German citizen, Mamoun Darkazanli, who is wanted on terrorism charges by a Spanish court, could be the catalyst which emasculates large parts of the European Union Law.
The German Constitutional Court is to launch an inquiry into whether EU law is compatible with the German Constitution.
The inquiry will review the Courts’ 1993 finding that EU integration is only compatible with the Basic Law if substantial powers remain in Germany, and the Constitutional Court has the “last word†in legal disputes with the EU.
Thus turning on its head the claim by the ECJ, that that EU law is superior to state law and the claim by the British FOC that,
Primacy of European Law is not new. It was already well established as a central principle of the single market well before the UK joined the EEC in 1973 and has been reflected in UK law ever since.
and No international organisation could function if domestic law undermined treaties. Once made, agreements with other nations must be kept in good faith and domestic law must respect them.
The German government has apparently angered the Court by sending a submission which plays down the German Court’s role, and says that “a national constitution reservation does not exist†under German law this submission must be against the courts stance, which clearly has, so far, retained the power of final arbiter in any legal dealings with the EU.
Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries is quoted saying that if the Court’s doubts are confirmed, “we could say goodbye to large parts of the European Unionâ€.
Munich Law Professor Bernd Schuenemann is quoted saying that the principle of mutual legal recognition, which is written into the EU Constitution, is unfair, as citizens cannot be expected to know what laws prevail in 25 member states. The report also notes that the Chairman of the constitutional part of the Court, Winfried Hassemer, has been increasingly critical of cross border prosecutions, arguing that, “liberty is stressed everywhere solemnlyâ€, but as soon as concrete steps are required to protect it, it is seen as “rather an annoying barrier to effective prosecutionâ€. He says it is unfortunate that the EU’s involvement in justice and home affairs “drove off†too quickly to be scrutinised.
The Principal of EU supremacy has never been part of the Union Treaties, but is for the first time to become part of the Constitution, if every country ratifies the document.
The British government was one of the first to sign away the rights of British people by accepting The EU Arrest Warrant. The German courts obviously respect the rights of German citizens a great deal more than British courts or for that matter British politicians respect the duty they owe to British Citizens, of course none of this would matter a damn, if we had not been forced to accept EU Citizenship in the first place.
