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Lisbon Treaty

September 18, 2009

Germany's Bundesrat upper house of parliament has cleared the way for the country to ratify the European Union's Lisbon Treaty, which is designed to streamline decision-making in the 27-nation bloc.

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A book: the Lisbon Treaty
The Lisbon Treaty clears its final hurdle in GermanyImage: AP

Germany's 16 federal states on Friday voted unanimously to adopt amendments to domestic law that make the EU reform treaty more compatible with German law. The Bundestag lower house of parliament had passed the laws earlier this month.

Both houses of the German parliament had already endorsed the 2007 Lisbon Treaty. But the process was halted by the constitutional court on June 30 following a legal challenge by a group of federal deputies who demanded a law protecting national parliamentary powers and giving them more of a say in decision- making in Brussels to be passed.

The Lisbon Treaty is considered officially ratified by Germany once President Horst Köhler has signed the document.

It must be ratified by all 27 EU member states before it can come into force. The ratification process must still be completed in the Czech Republic, Poland and Ireland, which holds a second referendum next month.


db/dpa/REUTERS/AFP
Editor: Andreas Illmer

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