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Source: Number1411,Shutterstock
Summary
- German Federal Court rejects Die Linke’s petition to review participation in CETA.
- The Canada-EU Trade Agreement came into effect in September 2017.
- Die Linke claims that the government failed to adequately examine the pact.
Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court on Tuesday rejected an opposition lawsuit seeking another review into German participation in the Canada-EU Trade Agreement (CETA).
The opposition party Die Linke had asked the court to allow for further scrutiny whether the pact adversely affects German businesses. The CETA agreement came into effect in 2017.
The court had allowed German participation in CETA through an interim order in 2016.
In its petition, the Die Linke party said that the German parliament had failed to sufficiently evaluate the pact. The government, it said, should have passed a law to allow German negotiators to participate in the trade talks.
The court observed that the petition was inadmissible. However, it noted that if the EU has transgressed its powers, then such an action would be unconstitutional. It further stated that the EU cannot legitimize such action by passing a law in advance.
Although it has neither banned nor cleared the CETA on Tuesday, the court will still have to deal with several other complaints pending before it regarding the pact.
In its 2016 interim order, the court had allowed the government to provisionally agree to the treaty before it came into effect after further review. Germany would have been compelled to withdraw from the agreement if the top court had ruled against it.
Pic Credit: Pixabay.
Opposition To CETA
Besides Die Linke, also called the Left Party, several other German political groups have opposed the CETA, stressing that the EU has no powers to sign the pact unilaterally.
They claim that there are many areas in the agreement which only the respective governments can decide, but the EU has overlooked them in passing the pact.
Moreover, some of these issues have been pending before the court for years. Die Linke and others have questioned the controversial powers of the EU.
While passing the ruling, the court also observed that the parliamentarians had enough time to review the pact and whether it encroaches on the areas of government jurisdiction.
