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Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe (2020)
Photo: Sebastian Gollnow / dpa
Greece was on the brink of national bankruptcy in 2015.
The explosive situation caused long negotiations between the EU countries in Brussels - with success.
At that time, however, the Federal Government's actions caused displeasure in the Bundestag.
The MPs were informed about the German line much too late, according to a complaint from the Green parliamentary group.
The judges at the constitutional court in Karlsruhe now agree with this argument.
The Federal Government must get the Bundestag on board in good time before setting the course at European level.
The Federal Constitutional Court insists on this in a decision that has now been published.
The Karlsruhe judges objected to the fact that in 2015, at the height of the Greek crisis, the parliamentarians were not informed about the German negotiating position before decisive meetings with the euro partners.
The so-called organ dispute between the parliamentary group and the federal government related to the events of July 11th to 13th, 2015. At that time, first the finance ministers and then the heads of state and government of the euro area wrestled in Brussels over whether the bankrupt Greece should leave the currency area.
In the end, terms and conditions for a third aid package were agreed.
The federal government had defended its approach
The Bundestag was only informed of the results of the euro summit on July 14th and 16th.
On the afternoon of July 12th, the Federal Government forwarded a document drawn up by the Ministry of Finance on July 10th in preparation for the negotiations to the Bundestag.
Various top politicians and officials in the Eurogroup received it on July 10th.
The Bundestag should have been informed about the proposals in this paper, which also included the option of Greece taking a break from the euro, "at the latest after the drafting of the document" on July 10, Karlsruhe now objects. "A notification obligation exists as soon as it is certain that a proposal or an initiative of the federal government is to be made the subject of negotiations at European level and thus communicated to the outside world."
The basis for this is Article 23 of the Basic Law. Among other things, it obliges the Federal Government to "provide comprehensive information to the Bundestag and Bundesrat" as early as possible on EU issues. According to the findings of the Second Senate, this right was clearly violated in the Greece negotiations. The federal government defended its approach by stating that the negotiating position had not yet been finally determined before the talks began.
The Greens members of the Bundestag Sven-Christian Kindler and Manuel Sarrazin, who initiated the lawsuit, welcomed the decision.
"The decision of the Federal Constitutional Court is a victory for parliamentary democracy," they declared.
The Bundestag should "not be pushed into a merely comprehensible role, especially when it comes to highly sensitive and highly dangerous positions such as the 'Grexit proposal' at the time."
asc / dpa
