ABSTRACT
In recent decades, German politics has been increasingly characterised by complex bargaining processes between national, sub-national and supranational actors as well as the European Union (EU) as a transnational actor. While the process of European integration has generally benefited the Federal Republic of Germany, it has also caused problems of government efficiency and democratic legitimacy. I Due to the relative weakness of the European Parliament and the need to incorporate EU directives into German law, the Bundestag and Bundesrat, as the two Houses of Parliament, retain an important role as a check at least on the German Federal Government's activities in the EU. Both chambers are crucial for the legitimisation of EU policy. Indeed, as the German Federal Constitutional Court maintained in its 1993 ruling, the legitimacy of EU policy stems primarily from the authority it is given by the national parliaments. 2 There is widespread agreement, however, that the Bundestag's and Bundesrat's capacity to fulfil this function of legitimisation of EU policy is severely constrained. 3
The political importance of the issue is in sharp contrast with the low degree of public awareness of its implications. While fears of loss of national sovereignty have come to the surface of public discourse during the 1980s and 1990s and resistance of certain groups (such as farmers) against EU policy has increased, policy-making in the European Union has never been a major issue of public controversy in Germany. Awareness of the way the Bundestag and Bundesrat scrutinise European Union policy is largely restricted to certain elite segments (interest groups, government officials, party leaders, federal-state governments and bureaucrats). This is not necessarily a specifically German feature but it contrasts with the higher degree of public awareness of the EU in Britain or Denmark, for example. One of the reasons for this lack of controversy is that the question of parliamentary sovereignty has never been of great significance. Unlike in Britain, where parliamentary sovereignty is a major pillar of constitutional theory, the German Basic Law (Article 24) explicitly permits the transfer of sovereign rights to international
organisations. Moreover, joining the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and, later, the European Economic Community and Euratom was a step-by-step process for the Federal Republic, whose direction and pace could be influenced by the Federal Government. Britain, by contrast, joined the three Communities which had already been in operation for a quarter of a century. Moreover, for Germany, joining the ECSC did not imply a significant loss of sovereignty. Rather, it represented a means of regaining sovereignty over industries in which the altied occupying powers held important controlling powers. The lack of public awareness is a consequence also of a lack of any party political conflict over EU matters. Although some extreme right-wing parties have attempted to instrumentalise the issue in their attempt to build up a broader support base, and despite the fact that some mainstream political leaders have expressed concern over a European currency or suggested different degrees of integration for different countries, there is a high degree of consensus amongst the German political elite as to the desirability 'and inevitability of further European integration. The issue of European integration does not divide government and opposition, nor does it cause any intra-party divisions like in the British House of Commons:
In this article, the nature of, and the German Parliament's responses to, the process of European integration will be identified and evaluated. The chapter will be a review of existing literature. The approach will be largely historical and descriptive.' The focus will be on the Bundestag and, to a lesser extent, on the Bundesrat. Federal-state parliaments (Landtage) will not be considered. Some other important actors such as the political parties and their attempts to link the domestic and European arenas cannot be specifically dealt with due to constraints of space."
