Berlin says Ja

To get the job done they did have to marshal some monstrous legalese like "bridging clauses", "competencies-competencies" and "emergency brake procedures". But in the end “the Bundestag pulled off its balancing act”, reports the Frankfurter Rundschau. On 8 September, the German parliament’s lower house passed a law – required under a Constitutional Court ruling in late June – that paves the way for Lisbon Treaty ratification - giving it a say in European lawgiving, “albeit without turning Berlin into the lame duck of Brussels”. Through “minimal pragmatic compliance” with the Constitutional Court’s demands, German members of the house have given the “cue to move ahead in stymied Europe”, delights the Frankfurt daily, which reputedly endorses the Lisbon Treaty. The FR also points out that the 8 September ayes should keep “the populist leaders of the CSU (Bavarian branch of Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats) from instrumentalising the debate to steer Germany’s European policy down a resolutely eurosceptical road”. Last step before ratifying the treaty: the law has to pass in the Bundesrat (upper chamber) in mid-September.