Checking the EU

Summer. Parliament has broken up for the recess. Awareness for political issues is low, as the business and most of it's protagonists are slowing down from the ordinary speed during the rest of the year. "Sommerloch", or summer hollow, is what it is called, when nothing happens, and many issues make it to the breaking news that otherwise would have gone down the drain right away. "Orchids", just for few people who like them.

I don't think this applies at all to an interview with the German Supreme Court's president, Hans-Jürgen Papier, in today's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. But I think it is rather queer that he should be asked to comment on the necessary checks and balances the European Union and it's jurisdiction by the European Court of Justice need, when practically everyone is out on the beach. Let's hope the members of the cabinet's in Berlin and Brussels have made sure they don't miss out in this one, because it is dynamite.

Papier ist not the first, but certainly not the least in a row of prominent experts which are sceptical of the drain of sovereignty EU member states have had to face over the years. Especially the principle of subsidiarity needs to be enforced, argues Papier:

FAZ: You are not satisfied with the way the principle of subsidiarity is applied?
Papier: No. the principle belongs to the judicial codex of the EU, but practically doesn't play any role. This must be changed!

Papier does not hold the European Court of Justice responsible for the enforcement, but the parliaments of member states. What he doesn't say, but means, is that it is those parliaments which fail mostly. Consequently, the member state's supreme courts are the true guardians of the principle of subsidiarity. They, and not the European Court of Justice, are the true guardians according to Papier. Whereas the ECJ may rule about the implementation of Law of the Community, the Supreme Courts of the member states can order their parliaments to ignore EU-law which violates the member states' constitution in the first place.

After all, as Papier pointed out:

The EU is nothing but a federation of independent states, not a federal rebublic!

I will continue on this later, when I have returned from a business trip to Berlin.

Quo vadis, Germany?

Hi, I was encouraged to start this blog on German politics after a meeting with Steve Clemons from The Washington Note. We met courtesy of the Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation to discuss web 2.0-strategies for Germany. There are very few political blogs on Germany (in relation to Germany's political weight and the number of political blogs elsewhere). Few blogs in German (I have started one a few month ago. Go and have a look:www.fette-henne.info), but even less in English.

After re-thinking this fact, I figured that there may be many people on the bloggosphere who are interested in political blogs about Germany, but are not familiar with the German language. It is for those of you that I have decided to start fat-chicken.info! I will try to post regularly. Sometimes these will be similar or identital to those on fette-henne.info and sometimes they may be completely different. It will depend on the issues which are concerned.

Today, I decided to start with a piece on the situation in the Grand Coalition here at half-time (well, it would be half-time, if SPD and CDU/CSU stick together for the rest of the legislation period ending in the fall of 2009). Chancellor Merkel has held a press conference just before breaking up for the summer recess on the coalitions scorecard after two years under her rule.

Some commentators have mentioned that those two years, and the improvement of the economic situation have been more of a PR-thing than a real success for Merkel's administration. Some have highlighted the poor climate between the two partners and concluded that a premature end of the coalition would be likely. I don't agree with that.

Obviously a lot of the swing in public opinion towards the work of government has come after Merkel assumed the presidency in the EU as well as in the G8-organization. These external factors have allowed Merkel to display some of her political strenght in negotiating difficult solutions.

But acknowledging this does not imply the domestic scorecard of the coalition were void.

Sure enough, Merkel has a wide gap to bridge between the left of the SPD and the right of the CDU/CSU that constitute the wings of her government. Political settlements have to account for that and may be called weak compromises by purists. On the other hand: Politics is the art of the feasible, and Merkel has proven a champion in this several times:

We must not forget: after the narrow election result in 2005 many expected a coup against Merkel from inside her own party. Her economically liberal election program was seen as the reason why the population did not vote stronger in favour of the CDU. Personally I did not agree to that in the first place, because it exludes the fact that the anti-Kirchhof-propaganda by former chancellor Schröder and his party was endorsed by criticism against Kirchhof and his tax-plans from inside the circle of CDU prime-ministers. But that is another story...
More important is to remember that Ms. Merkel was able to engage her critics in the process of negotiating the coalition-agreement, thus ensuring that whatever deal is struck will be supported by a maximum of political heavy-weights inside her own camp.

In this respect Merkel has not forsaken her own electoral program at all. I am quite convinced that she has not turned her back on the Leipzig-reform-program of the CDU. Instead, she is smart enough to realize it would limit her political leverage if she were to refer to those plans too often. Sticking to what has been agreed upon with the Social Democrats for this legislative period, on the contrary, shows in my view her determination to act as the leading and controlling part of this coalition, which she knows is a precondition for any success in the next polls. It has been eight years since I have worked for Ms. Merkel, but I am certain that she is still committed to the Leipzig-reform-program. This was, first of all, her personal reform program. If she hadn't been convinced it would be the right thing to do, she would have prevented it from happening then. Because she didn't, and because she did not renounce since (which, if it were her inner conviction, she would have done long since the 22nd of September 2005!), we can be sure that she has but stored it safely away. Waiting for better times and a coalition partner willing to go along.

For the moment, she knows that what the coalition has reached so far (reform of the federal system, health reform, corporate tax reform, new approach for raising and educating children et. al.) is the maximum that is possible with this government. Stronger opposition to the SPD within this government would lead to it's breakup and, according to all polls, to a leftist government even though the CDU might earn more votes than the SPD. Thus, leading this government constructively according to what was agreed upon, is the smart thing to do. I agree!