UPCA Approval by German Bundesrat

In the legislative process for the ratification of the UPCA by Germany, a further step has been completed last Friday, December 18, 2020: After the adoption in the German Bundestag on November 26, the German Bundesrat has now also approved the Ratification Act with the required 2/3 – majority.

This approval has to be countersigned by the Federal Government to be followed by the execution by the Federal President and the deposit of the instrument of ratification with the General Secretariat of the Council of the EU as final steps of the ratification.

Germany has already been at this point in the ratification process in the course of the first legislative procedure and it remains to be hoped that the process will not be interrupted or delayed again on the advice of the German Federal Constitutional Court. According to media reports, two new constitutional complaints against the Ratification Act have already been filed last Friday as well. Even though the formal mistakes that led to the success of the constitutional complaint against the first Ratification Act have been eliminated, some questions of constitutionality have so far remained unanswered.