EU confident of treaty ratification after court ruling

(BRUSSELS) - European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso expressed confidence Tuesday that the EU's reform treaty would be ratified across the bloc by autumn, despite a German court ruling suspending the process there.

"I welcome the judgement of the German constitutional court," he said in a statement. "It confirms that the Treaty of Lisbon is in conformity with the German constitution."

"I am confident that we can complete the process of ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon in all countries by the autumn," he said.

The German constitutional court ruled earlier Tuesday that the treaty could not be ratified in Germany until legislation has been put in place to safeguard national parliamentary powers, following a legal challenge.

"If one wanted to summarise this result, one could say: the constitution says 'yes' to the Lisbon Treaty but demands that parliament's right to participation be strengthened at the national level," the court said.

Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer, called the German court decision "an important positive step" towards the ratification of the treaty "and towards institutional stability of the European Union."

"The statement of the German Constitutional Court that the Lisbon Treaty as such does not contradict the German Constitution can be considered of crucial importance," said Fischer whose country will hand over the rotating EU presidency to Sweden on Wednesday.

The vast treaty of reforms aims to streamline decision-making in the EU and give the bloc a stronger voice on the world stage. It has been ratified by 23 of the 27 member nations but all must do so for it to enter force.

Following the court's judgement, a spokeswoman for the German centre-left Social Democrats announced that the parliament would hold special sessions on August 26 and September 8 to debate a law allowing the treaty to pass.

Germans vote in legislative elections on September 27.

Julia De Clerck-Sachsse, research fellow at the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), declared herself relieved at the German court decision.

"They said that yes the Lisbon Treaty is compatible with the German constitution, so overall there is no worry," she told AFP.

"Of course they did want some changes to the law that amends the German constitution to safeguard the parliamentary participation of the Bundestag."

The ruling, while creating no major hurdle to ratification would help "assuage the fears of those who think there's a sort of underground unraveling of national authority", she added.

Antonio Missiroli, director of Studies at the European Policy Centre, another Brussels-based think tank, said he did not expect the events in Germany to slow down the overall progress of the treaty, which remains greatly dependent on Irish voters.

"It's a legal not a political problem because there is a very large majority in the Bundestag for doing whatever may be needed," he said.

The treaty ratification process was hampered a year ago when Irish voters rejected the treaty in a referendum over fears that it could affect the country's military neutrality and abortion laws.

Since then opinion in Ireland has swung in favour of Lisbon as the global financial crisis has hit the former "Celtic Tiger" economy harder than most.

Dublin has also secured new assurances on the treaty and is preparing to organise a fresh referendum in early October.

The eurosceptic presidents of the Czech Republic and Poland are refusing to sign the treaty until the Irish vote has been completed.